I 


THE 


BARTON  EXPERIMENT 


BY  THE  AUTHOR  OF  "  HELEN'S  BABIES  " 
^^ 


NEW  YORK 

G.    P.    PUTNAM'S    SONS 

182  FIFTH  AVENUE 
1877 


Copyright 

BY  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
1876 


955 


b 


PREFACE. 


r  I  ^HIS  book  is  not  offered  to  the  public  as  a  fin- 
-*•  ished  romance,  or  even  as  an  attempt  at  one ; 
the  persons  who  appear  on  its  pages  are  not  only 
not  those  who  inspire  pretty  stories,  but  they  are 
so  literally  the  representatives  of  individuals  who 
have  lived  that  they  cannot  well  be  separated  from 
their  natural  surroundings.  It  has  seemed  to  the 
author  that  if  American  people  could  behold  some 
of  the  men  who  have  astonished  themselves  and 
others  by  their  success  as  reformers,  individual 
effort  would  not  be  so  rare  in  communities  where 
organization  is  not  so  easily  effected,  and  where 
unfortunates  are  ruined  in  the  midst  of  their  neigh 
bors,  while  organization  is  being  hoped  for.  It  is 
more  than  possible,  too,  that  the  accepted  business 
principle  that  the  pocket  is  the  source  of  power,  is 
not  as  clearly  recognized  as  it  should  be  in  reform 
movements,  and  that  the  struggles  of  some  of  the 

938639 


IV  PREFACE. 

characters  outlined  herein   may  throw  some  light 
upon  this  unwelcome  but  absolute  fact. 

The  ideal  reformer,  the  man  of  great  principles  and 
eloquent  arguments,  fails  to  appear  in  these  pages, 
not  because  of  any  doubts  as  to  his  existence,  but 
because  his  is  a  mental  condition  to  which  men 
attain  without  much  stimulus  from  without,  while 
it  need  not  be  feared  that  in  the  direction  of  indi 
vidual  effort  and  self-denial,  the  greatest  amount  of 
suggestion  will  ever  urge  any  one  too  far. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
REFORMERS  AT  WHITE  HEAT I 

CHAPTER  II. 
BUSINESS  vs.   PHILANTHROPY 13 

CHAPTER   III. 
A  WET  BLANKET 23 

CHAPTER  IV. 
REFORM  WITH  MONEY  IN  IT 34 

CHAPTER  V. 
AN  ASTONISHED  VIRGINIAN 46 

CHAPTER  VI. 
A  COURSE  NEVER  SMOOTH 59 

CHAPTER  VII. 
SOME  NATURAL  RESULTS 73 


vi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
AN  ESTIMABLE  ORGANIZATION  CRITICISED 83 

CHAPTER  IX. 
SOME  VOLUNTEER  SHEPHERDS 96 

CHAPTER  X. 
BRINGING  HOME  THE  SHEEP 105 

CHAPTER  XI. 
DOCTORS  AND  BOYS 113 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Two  SIDES  OF  A  CLOUD 122 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
A  PHENOMENON  IN  EMBRYO 132 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
SAILING  UP  STREAM 146 

CHAPTER  XV. 
A  FIRST  INWARD  PEEP 1 6 1 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
A  REFORMER    DISAPPOINTED 1 74 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
THE  CONCLUSION  OF  THE  WHOLE  MATTER..  .    186 


THE 

BARTON    EXPERIMENT, 


CHAPTER  I. 

REFORMERS  AT   WHITE   HEAT. 

T  ONG  and  loud  rang  all  the  church  bells  of  Bar- 
••— '  ton  on  a  certain  summer  evening  twenty  years 
ago.  It  was  not  a  Sunday  evening,  for  during  an 
accidental  lull  there  was  heard,  afar  off  yet  distinct 
ly,  the  unsanctified  notes  of  the  mail-carrier's  horn. 
And  yet  the  doors  of  the  village  stores,  which  usually 
stood  invitingly  open  until  far  into  the  night,  were 
now  tightly  closed,  while  the  patrons  of  the  several 
drinking-shops  of  Barton  congregated  quietly  within 
the  walls  of  their  respective  sources  of  inspiration, 
instead  of  forming,  as  was  their  usual  wont,  lively 
groups  on  the  sidewalk. 

The  truth  was,  Barton  was  about  to  indulge  in  a 


BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 


monster  temperance  meeting.  The  "  Sons  of  Tem 
perance,"  as  well  as  the  "  Daughters  "  and  "  Cadets  " 
thereof,  the  "  Washingtonians,"  the  "  Total  Absti 
nence  Society,"  and  all  various  religious  bodies  in  the. 
village  had  joined  their  forces  for  a  grand  demon 
stration  against  King  Alcohol.  The  meeting  had 
been  appropriately  announced,  for  several  successive 
Sundays,  from  each  pulpit  in  Barton  ;  the  two  school 
teachers  of  Barton  had  repeatedly  informed  their 
pupils  of  the  time  and  object  of  the  meeting  ;  the 
"  Barton  Register  "  had  devoted  two  leaders  and  at 
least  a  dozen  items  to  the  subject  ;  and  a  poster,  in 
the  largest  type  and  reddest  ink  which  the  "Regis 
ter  "  office  could  supply,  confronted  one  at  every 
fork  and  crossing  of  roads  leading  to  and  from  Bar 
ton,  and  informed  every  passer-by  that  Major  Ben 
Bailey,  the  well-known  champion  of  the  temperance 
cause,  would  address  the  meeting,  that  the  "  Crystal 
Spring  Glee  Club  "  would  sing  a  number  of  stirring 
songs,  and  that  the  Barton  Brass  Band  had  also  been 
secured  for  the  evening.  The  only  inducement 
which  might  have  been  lacking  was  found  at  the 
foot  of  the  poster,  in  the  two  words,  "  Admittance 
Free." 

No  wonder  the  villagers  crowded  to  the  Metho- 


REFORMERS  AT  WHITE   HEAT.  3 

dist  Church,  the  most  commodious  gathering-place 
in  the  town.  Long  before  the  bells  had  ceased 
clanging  the  church  was  so  full  that  children  occupy 
ing  full  seats  were  accommodatingly  taken  on  the 
laps  of  their  parents,  larger  children  were  lifted  to 
the  window-sills,  deaf  people  were  removed  from 
the  pews  to  the  altar  steps,  and  chairs  were  brought 
from  the  various  residences  and  placed  in  the  aisles. 
Outside  the  church,  crowds  stood  about  near  the 
windows,  while  more  prudent  persons  made  seats  of 
logs  from  the  woodpile  which  the  country  members 
of  the  congregation  had  already  commenced  to  form 
against  the  approaching  winter. 

A  sudden  hush  of  the  whispering  multitude  ush 
ered  in  the  clergy  of  Barton,  and,  for  once,  the  four 
reverend  gentlemen  really  seemed  desirous  of  unit 
ing  against  a  common  enemy  instead  of  indulging 
in  their  customary  quadrangular  duel.  Then,  amid 
a  general  clapping  of  hands,  the  members  of  the 
Crystal  Spring  Glee  Club  filed  in  and  took  reserved 
seats  at  the  right  of  the  altar;  while  the  Barton 
Brass  Band,  announced  by  a  general  shriek  of  "  Oh  !" 
from  all  the  children  present,  seated  themselves  on 
a  raised  platform  on  the  left. 

Squire  Tomple,  the  richest  and  fattest  citizen  of 


4  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

the  town,  was  elected  chairman,  and  accepted  with 
a  benignant  smile.  Then  the  Reverend  Timotheus 
Brown,  the  oldest  pastor  in  the  village,  prayed 
earnestly  that  intemperance  might  cease  to  reign. 
Squire  Tomple  then  called  on  the  band  for  some  in 
strumental  music,  which  was  promptly  given  and 
loudly  applauded,  after  which  the  Crystal  Spring 
Glee  Club  sang  a  song  with  a  rousing  chorus.  Then 
there  was  a  touching  dialogue  between  a  pretended 
drunkard  and  his  mother,  in  which  the  graceless 
youth  was  brought  to  a  knowledge  of  the  error  of  his 
ways,  and  moved  to  make  a  very  full  and  grammatical 
confession.  Then  the  band  played  another  air,  arid 
the  Glee  Club  sang  "  Don't  you  go,  Tommy,"  and 
there  was  a  tableau  entitled  "  The  First  Glass," 
and  another  of  "  The  Drunkard's  Home,"  after 
which  the  band  played  still  another  air.  Then  a 
member  of  the  Executive  Committee  stepped  on 
tiptoe  up  to  the  chairman  and  whispered  to  him,  and 
the  chairman  assumed  an  air  of  dignified  surprise, 
edged  expectantly  to  one  side  of  his  chair,  and 
finally  arose  suddenly  as  another  member  of  the  Ex 
ecutive  Committee  entered  the  rear  door  arm-in-arm 
with  the  great  Major  Ben  Bailey  himself. 

The  committee-man  introduced  the  Major  to  the 


REFORMERS  AT   WHITE   HEAT.  5 

chairman,  who  in  turn  made  *he  Major  acquainted 
with  the  reverend  clergy  ;  the  audience  indulged  in 
a  number  of  critical  and  approving  glances  and 
whispers,  and  then  the  chair  announced  that  the 
speaker  of  the  evening  would  now  instruct  and  en 
tertain  those  there  present.  The  speaker  of  the 
evening  cleared  his  throat,  took  a  swallow  of  water, 
threw  his  head  back,  thrust  one  hand  beneath  his 
coat-tails,  and  opened  his  discourse. 

He  was  certainly  a  very  able  speaker.  He  ex 
plained  in  a  few  words  the  nature  of  alcohol,  and 
what  were  its  unvarying  effects  upon  the  human 
system  ;  proved  to  the  satisfaction  and  horror  of 
the  audience,  from  reports  of  analyses  and  from 
liquor-dealers'  handbooks,  that  most  liquors  were 
adulterated,  and  with  impure  and  dangerous  mate 
rials  ;  explained  how  the  use  of  beer  and  light  wines 
created  a  taste  for  stronger  liquors  ;  showed  the 
fallacy  of  the  idea  that  liquor  was  in  any  sense 
nutritious;  told  a  number  of  amusing  stories  about 
men  who  had  been  drunk  ;  displayed  figures  show 
ing  how  many  pounds  of  bread  and  meat  might  be 
bought  with  the  money  spent  in  the  United  States 
for  liquor,  how  many  comfortable  homes  the  same 
money  would  build,  how  many  suits  of  clothing  it 


6  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

would  pay  for,  how  many  churches  it  would  erect, 
and  how  soon  it  would  pay  the  National  Debt 
(whicn  in  those  days  was  foolishly  considered  large 
enough  to  be  talked  about).  Then,  after  drawing  a 
touching  picture  of  the  drunkard's  home,  and  dra 
matically  describing  the  horrors  of  the  drunkard's 
death,  the  gallant  Major  made  an  eloquent  appeal 
to  all  present  to  forsake  forever  the  poisonous  bowl, 
and  dropped  into  his  seat  amid  a  perfect  thunde^  of 
applause. 

The  lecture  had  been  a  powerful  one ;  it  was 
evident  that  the  speaker  had  formed  a  deep  im 
pression  on  the  minds  of  his  hearers,  for  when  the 
pledge  was  circulated,  men  and  women  who  never 
drank  snatched  it  eagerly  and  appended  their  names, 
some  parents  even  putting  pencils  into  baby  fingers, 
and  with  devout  pride  helping  the  little  ones  to 
trace  their  names.  Nor  were  the  faithful  alone  in 
earnestness,  for  a  loud  shout  of  "  Bless  the  Lord  !  " 
from  Father  Baguss,  who  was  circulating  one  of  the 
^pledges,  attracted  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
document  was  being  signed  by  George  Doughty, 
Squire  Tomple's  own  book-keeper,  one  of  the  most 
promising  young  men  in  Barton,  except  that  he  oc 
casionally  drank.  Then  the  list  of  names  taken  in 


REFORMERS  AT  WHITE   HEAT.  7 

the  gallery  was  read,  and  it  was  ascertained  that 
Tom  Adams,  who  drove  the  brick-yard  wagon,  and 
whose  sprees  were  mighty  in  length  and  magnitude, 
had  also  signed.  Haifa  dozen  men  hurried  into  the 
gallery  to  congratulate  Tom  Adams,  and  so  excited' 
that  gentleman  that  he  took  a  pledge  and  a  pencil, 
went  into  the  crowd  outside  the  church,  and  soon 
returned  with  the  names  of  some  of  the  heaviest 
drinkers  in  town. 

The  excitement  increased.  Cool-headed  men — 
men  who  rarely  or  never  drank,  yet  disapproved  of 
binding  pledges — gave  in  their  names  almost  before 
they  knew  it.  Elder  Hobbedowker  moved  a  tem 
porary  suspension  of  the  circulation  of  the  pledges 
until  the  Lord  could  be  devoutly  thanked  for  this 
manifestation  of  his  grace  ;  then  the  good  elder 
assumed  that  his  motion  had  been  put  and  carried, 
and  he  immediately  made  an  earnest  prayer.  During 
the  progress  of  the  prayer  the  leader  of  the  band — 
perhaps  irreverently,  but  acting  under  the  general 
excitement — brought  his  men  to  attention,  and  the 
elder's  "  Amen  "  was  drowned  in  the  opening  crash 
of  a  triumphal  march.  Then  the  Glee  Club  sang 
"  Down  with  Rum,"  but  were  brought  to  a  sudden 
stop  by  the  chairman,  who  excused  himself  by 


8  THE  BARTON  EXPERIMENT. 

making  the  important  announcement  that  their 
fellow-citizen,  Mr.  Crupp,  who  had  been  a  large 
vender  of  intoxicating  beverages,  had  declared  his 
intention  to  abandon  the  business  forever.  The 
four  pastors  shook  hands  enthusiastically  with  each 
other ;  while,  in  response  to  deafening  cheers,  the 
heroic  Crupp  himself  was  thrust  upon  the  platform, 
where,  with  a  trembling  voice  and  a  pale  though 
determined  face,  he  reaffirmed  his  decision.  Old 
Parson  Fish  hobbled  to  the  front  of  the  pulpit, 
straightened  his  bent  back  until  his  mien  had  at  once 
some  of  the  lamb  and  the  lion  about  it,  and,  raising 
his  right  hand  authoritatively,  started  the  doxology, 
"  Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow,"  in 
Avhich  he  was  devoutly  and  uproariously  joined  by 
the  whole  assemblage.  This  done,  the  people,  by 
force  of  habit,  waited  a  moment  as  if  expecting  the 
benediction ;  then  remembering  it  was  not  Sunday, 
they  broke  into  a  general  and  very  enthusiastic  chat, 
which  ceased  only  when  the  sexton,  who  was  a 
creature  of  regular  habits,  announced  from  the 
pulpit  that  the  oil  in  the  lamps  would  last  only  a 
few  minutes  longer,  and  that  he  had  promised  to  be 
at  home  by  ten  o'clock. 

Squire  Tomple   took   the   arm   of  the   penitent 


REFORMERS  AT   WHITE   HEAT.  9 

Crupp  and  appropriated  him  in  full.  There  was  a 
great  deal  to  Squire  Tomple  besides  avoirdupois, 
and  when  thoroughly  aroused,  his  enthusiasm  was 
of  a  magnitude  consistent  with  his  size.  Besides, 
Squire  Tomple  was  in  the  habit  of  having  his  own 
way,  as  became  the  richest  man  in  Barton,  and  he 
appropriated  Mr.  Crupp  as  a  matter  of  course. 
With  Mr.  Crupp  on  his  arm  and  the  great  cause  in 
his  heart,  he  appeared  to  himself  so  fully  the  master 
of  the  situation  that  the  foul  fiend  of  drunkenness 
seemed  conquered  forever,  and  the  Squire  swung 
his  cane  with  a  triumphal  violence  which  seriously 
threatened  the  safety  of  the  villagers  in  front  of  and 
behind  him. 

The  Squire  held  his  peace  while  surrounded  by 
the  home-g9ing  crowd,  as  rightly  became  a  great 
man ;  but  when  he  had  turned  into  the  street  in 
which  Mr.  Crupp  lived,  he  said,  with  due  con 
descension, 

"  Crupp,  you've  done  the  right  thing;  you  might 
have  done  it  sooner,  but  you  can  do  a  great  deal 
of  good  yet." 

The  ex-rumselle.r  quietly  replied, 

11  Yes,  if  I'm  helped  at  it." 

"  Helped  ?     Of  course   you'll  be  helped,  if  you 


10  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

pray  for  It.  You've  repented ;  now  address  the 
throne  of  grace,  and " 

"  Yes,  I  know,"  interrupted  Mr.  Crupp.  "  I'm 
not  entirely  unacquainted  with  the  Lord,  if  I  have 
sold  rum.  You  know  his  sun  shines  on  the  just 
and  the  unjust,  and  I've  had  a  good  share  of  it.  It's 
help  from  men  that  I  want,  and  am  afraid  that  I 
can't  get  it." 

"  Why,  Crupp,"  remonstrated  the  Squire,  "  you 
must  have  made  something  out  of  your  business,  if 
it  is  an  infernal  one." 

"  I  don't  mean  that,"  replied  Mr.  Crupp,  a  little 
tartly.  "  You've  been  on  your  little  drunks  when 
you  were  young,  of  course  ?  " 

The  Squire  almost  twitched  Mr.  Crupp  off  the 
sidewalk,  as  he  exclaimed,  with  righteous  indigna 
tion, 

"  I  never  was  drunk  in  my  life." 

"  Oh  !  "  said  the  convert.  "  Well,  some  have,  and 
pledges  won't  quiet  an  uneasy  stomach,  no  way  you 
can  fix  'em.  Them  that  never  drank  are  all  right, 
but  the  drinking  boys  that  signed  to-night'll  be 
awful  thirsty  in  the  morning." 

"  Well,"  said  the  Squire,  "  //^jmust  pray,  and  act 
like  men." 


REFORMERS   AT   WHITE   HEAT.  II 

"  Some  of  'em  don't  believe  in  prayin',  and  some 
of  'em  can't  act  like  men,  because  'tisn't  in  'em. 
There's  men  that  seem  to  need  whisky  as  much  as 
they  need  bread  ;  leastways,  they  don't  seem  able  to 
do  without  it." 

"  If  I'd  been  you,  and  believed  that,  Crupp,"  re 
plied  the  Squire,  with  noticeable  coolness  and  de 
liberation,  "  I  wouldn't  have  signed  the  pledge ; 
that  is,  I  wouldn't  have  stopped  selling  liquor." 

"  P'r'aps  not,"  returned  the  ex-rumseller ;  "  but 
with  me  it's  different.  There's  some  men  that 
b'lieves  that  sellin'  a  woman  a  paper  of  pins,  and 
measurin'  out  a  quart  of  tar  for  a  farmer,  is  small 
business,  an*  beneath  'em,  but  they  stick  to  it.  Now 
I  believe  I'm  too  much  of  a  man  to  sell  whisky,  so 
I've  stopped." 

The  Squire  took  the  rebuke  in  silence ;  however 
muofe  his  face  may  have  flushed,  there  were  in  Par- 
ton  no  tell-tale  gas-lamps  to  make  his  discomfort 
visible.  The  Squire  had  grown  rich  as  a  vender  of 
the  thousand  little  things  sold  in  country  stores  ;  he 
had  many  a  time  declared  that  storekeeping  was  a 
dog's  life,  and  that  he,  Squire  Tomple,  was  every 
body's  nigger — but  he  made  no  attempt  to  change 
his  business. 


12  THE  BARTON  EXPERIMENT. 

"  What  I  mean,"  continued  Mr.  Crupp,  "  by  need- 
in'  help,  is  this  :  I  know  just  about  how  much  every 
drinkin'  man  in  town  takes,  an'  when  he  takes  it, 
an'  about  when  he  gets  on  his  sprees.  Now,  if 
there's  anybody  to  take  an  interest  in  these  fellows 
at  such  times,  they're  going  to  have  plenty  of 
chances  mighty  soon." 


CHAPTER   II. 

BUSINESS  VS.   PHILANTHROPY. 

the  morning  after  the  meeting  the  happiest 
man  in  all  Barton  was  the  Reverend  Jonas 
Wedgewell.  He  had  been  one  of  the  first  to  agitate 
the  subject  of  a  grand  temperance  demonstration ; 
in  fact,  he  had,  while  preaching  the  funeral  sermon 
of  a  young  man  who  had  been  drowned  while  drunk, 
prophesied  that  the  sad  event  which  had  on  that 
occasion  drawn  his  hearers  together  would  give  a 
mighty  impetus  to  the  temperance  movement ;  then 
like  a  sensible,  matter-of-fact  prophet,  he  exerted 
himself  to  the  uttermost  that  his  prophecy  might  be 
fulfilled.  He  subscribed  liberally  to  the  fund  which 
paid  for  advertising  the  meeting ;  he  labored  per 
sonally  a  full  hour  with  the  performer  on  the  big 
drum,  and  ended  by  persuading  him  to  forego  a 
coon-hunt  on  that  particular  night,  that  he  might 
take  part  in  a  hunt  for  nobler  game.  The  Rever 
end  Jonas  had  drafted  all  the  pledges  which  were 
circulated  during  the  meeting,  and  had  seen  to  it 


14  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

that  they  contained  no  weak  or  ungrammatic  ex 
pressions  which  might  tempt  thirsty  souls  to  treat 
disrespectfully  the  documents  and  the  principles 
they  embodied.  He  had  reached  the  church  door 
at  the  third  tap  of  the  bell,  had  greeted  all  his  rev 
erend  brethren  with  a  hearty  shake  with  both  his 
own  hands,  and  had  offered  the  Reverend  Timotheus 
Brown  so  many  pertinent  suggestions  as  to  the 
prayer  which  that  gentleman  had  been  requested 
to  make  that  the  ancient  divine  remarked,  with  a 
touch  of  saintly  sarcasm,  that  he  did  not  consider 
that  the  occasion  justified  him  in  making  a  de 
parture  from  his  habit  of  offering  strictly  original 
prayers. 

Through  the  whole  course  of  the  meeting  good 
Pastor  Wedgewell  sat  expectantly  on  the  extreme 
end  of  the  pulpit  sofa,  his  body  inclined  a  little  for 
ward,  his  hands  upon  his  knees,  his  eyes  gleaming 
brightly  through  polished  glasses,  and  his  whole 
pose  suggesting  the  most  intense  earnestness.  He 
discerned  a  telling  point  before  its  verbal  expres 
sion  was  fully  completed,  his  hands  commenced  to 
applaud  the  moment  the  point  was  announced  ;  his 
varnished  boots  and  well-stored  head  beat  time  alike 
to  "  Lily  Dale/'  the  march  from  "  Norma,"  "  Sweet 


BUSINESS   I'S.   PHILANTHROPY.  15 

Spirit,  hear  my  prayer,"  and  such  other  airs  as  the 
band  was  not  ashamed  to  play  in  public  ;  he  sprang 
from  his  seat  and  approvingly  patted  the  youthful 
backs  of  the  pretended  drunkard  and  his  mother  , 
he  laughed  almost  hysterically  at  the  wit  of  the  lec 
turer,  and  moistened  handkerchief  after  handker 
chief  as  the  able  speaker  depicted  the  sad  results  of 
drunkenness.  While  the  pledges  were  being  circu 
lated,  the  reverend  man  occupied  a  position  which 
raked  the  house,  and  he  was  the  first  to  announce  to 
the  faithful  in  the  front  seats  the  capture  of  any 
drinking  man.  He  intercepted  Tom  Lyker,  a  tin- 
shop  apprentice,  who  had  signed  the  pledge,  in  the 
aisle,  immediately  after  the  audience  was  dismissed, 
and  suggested  that  they  should  together  hold  a  sea 
son  of  prayer  in  the  study  attached  to  the  church  ; 
and  the  rather  curt  manner  in  which  the  repentant 
but  not  altogether  regenerate  Thomas  declined  the 
invitation  did  not  abash  the  holy  man  in  the  least ; 
for,  as  the  audience  finally  dispersed,  he  secured  a 
few  faithful  ones,  with  whom  he  adjourned  to  the 
study,  and  enjoyed  what  he  afterward  referred  to 
as  a  precious  season. 

Mrs.  Wedgewell,  who  rendered  but  feeble  rever 
ence  unto  him  who  was  at  once  her  spouse  and  her 


1 6  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

spiritual  adviser,  had  been  known  to  say  that  when 
the  old  gentleman  was  wound  up  there  was  no  know 
ing  when  he  would  run  down  again  ;  and  all  who 
saw  the  good  man  on  the  morning  after  the  meeting, 
admitted  that  his  wife's  simile  was  an  uncommonly 
apt  one.  Squire  Tomple  believed  so  fully  in  the 
advantages  of  the  early  bird  over  all  others  in  search 
of  sustenance,  that  his  store  was  always  opened  at 
sunrise ;  yet  George  Doughty  had  just  taken  the 
third  shutter  from  the  front  window,  when  a  gentle 
tap  on  the  shoulder  caused  him  to  drop  the  rather 
heavy  board  upon  his  toes.  As  he  wrathfully  turned 
himself,  he  beheld  the  approving  countenance  and 
extended  congratulatory  hand  of  the  Reverend 
Wedgewell. 

"  George,  my  dear,  my  noble  young  friend,"  said 
he,  as  the  irate  youth  squeezed  his  agonized  toes, 
"  you  have  performed  a  most  noble  and  meritorious 
action — an  action  which  you  will  never  have  cause 
to  regret." 

For  a  moment  or  two  the  young  man's  face  said 
many  things  not  seemly  to  express  in  appropriate 
words  to  a  clergyman  ;  but  he  finally  recovered  his 
sense  of  politeness,  and  replied: 

"  I  hope  I  shan't   repent  of  it,  but  I  don't  know. 


BUSINESS  VS.   PHILANTHROPY.  1 7 

It  may  be  noble  and  meritorious  to  sign  the  pledge, 
but  a  fellow  needs  to  have  twenty  times  as  much 
man  in  him  to  keep  it." 

"  Now  you  don't  mean  to  say,  George,  that  you'll 
allow  such  a  vile  appetite  to  regain  its  ascendency 
over  you  ?  "  pleaded  the  preacher. 

"'Tisn't  a  vile  appetite,"  quickly  replied  the 
young  man.  "I  need  whisky  as  much  as  I  need 
bread  and  butter — yes,  and  a  great  deal  more,  too. 
I  have  to  open  the  store  at  sunrise,  and  keep  it  open 
till  nine  o'clock  and  after,  have  to  make  myself 
agreeable  to  anywhere  from  two  to  twenty  people 
at  a  time,  sell  all  I  can,  watch  people  who  will  steal 
the  minute  your  eye  is  off  of  them,  not  let  anybody 
feel  neglected,  and  see  that  I  get  cash  from  every 
body  who  isn't  good  pay.  When  there  isn't  any 
body  here,  I've  got  to  keep  the  books,  see  that  the 
stock  don't  run  down  in  spots,  and  stir  up  peo 
ple  that  are  slow  pay.  The  only  way  I  can  do 
it  all  is  by  taking  something  to  help  me.  I  hate 
whisky — I'm  going  to  try  to  leave  it  alone;  but  I 
tell  you,  Dominie,  it's  going  to  be  one  of  the  big 
gest  fights  you  ever  knew  a  young  man  to  go  into." 

The  reverend  listener  was  as  easily  depressed  as  he 
was  exalted,  and  Doughty's  short  speech  had  the 


1 8  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

effect  of  greatly  elongating  the  minister's  counte 
nance.  Yet  he  had  a  great  deal  of  that  pertinacity 
which  is  as  necessary  to  soldiers  of  the  cross  as  it  is 
to  those  of  the  bayonet  ;  so  he  began  manfully  to 
search  his  mind  for  some  weapon  or  means  of  de 
fense  which  the  clerk  could  use.  Suddenly  his 
countenance  brightened,  his  benevolent  eyes  en 
larged  behind  his  glasses,  and  he  exclaimed : 

"  Just  the  thing!  My  dear  young  friend,  the 
hand  of  Providence  is  in  this  matter.  Your  worthy 
employer  was  the  chairman  of  our  meeting  last 
night ;  certainly  he  will  be  glad  to  give  you  such 
assistance  as  shall  lessen  the  amount  of  your  labors. 
Here  he  comes  now.  Let  me  manage  this  affair  ;  I 
really  ask  it  as  a  favor." 

"  I'm  much  obliged,  but  I  think — confound  it !  " 
ejaculated  the  young  man,  as  his  companion  has 
tened  out  of  earshot  and  buttonholed  Squire  Tomple. 
Half  smiling  and  half  frowning  Doughty  retired 
from  the  door,  but  took  up  a  new  position,  from 
which  he  could  see  the  couple.  To  the  eyes  of  the 
clerk,  his  employer  seemed  a  rock  in  his  unchanging 
pose,  while  the  old  preacher,  rich  in  manv^  a  grace 
not  peculiar  to  country  storekeepers,  yet  utterly 
ignorant  of  business  and  such  of  its  perversions  as 


BUSINESS   VS.   PHILANTHROPY.  19 

are  called  requirements,  seemed  a  mere  lamb — a 
fancy  which  was  strengthened  by  the  incessant 
gesturing  and  change  of  position  in  which  he  in 
dulged  when  in  conversation.  The  pair  soon  sepa 
rated  ;  the  minister  walked  away,  his  step  seeming 
not  so  exultant  as  when  he  approached  the  merchant ; 
while  the  latter,  appearing  to  his  clerk  to  be  broader, 
deeper,  and  more  solid  than  ever,  approached  the 
store,  lifted  up  his  head,  displayed  the  face  he 
usually  wore  when  he  found  he  had  made  a  bad  debt, 
and  said, 

"  George,  I  wish  you  wouldn't  try  to  talk  about 
business  to  ministers.  Old  Wedgewell  has  just 
pestered  me  nearly  to  death  ;  says  you  complain  of 
having  too  much  to  do,  and  that  you  have  to  drink 
to  keep  up.  It'll  be  just  like  him  to  tell  somebody 
else,  and  a  pretty  story  that'll  be  to  go  around  about 
the  chairman  of  a  temperance  meeting." 

"  I  didn't  mean  to  say  anything  to  him,"  replied 
the  clerk;  "  but  he  made  me  drop  a  shutter  on  my 
toes,  and  I  guess  that  loosened  my  tongue  a  little. 
I  didn't  tell  him  anything  but  the  truth,  though, 
Squire.  I  signed  the  pledge,  last  night,  hoping  you'd 
help  me  through." 

"What — what    do   you    mean,   George?"    asked 


20  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

the  merchant,  in  a  tone  which  defined  the  word 
"  conservative "  more  clearly  than  lexicographer 
ever  did. 

"  I  can't  work  so  many  hours  a  day  without 
drinking  sometimes,"  replied  the  clerk.  "  What  I 
ask  of  you  is  to  take  a  boy.  If  I  could  come  in  a 
couple  of  hours  later  every  morning — and  there's 
next  to  nothing  done  in  the  first  two  hours  of  the 
day — I  could  have  a  decent  amount  of  rest,  not 
have  to  hurry  so  much,  and  wouldn't  break  down  so 
often,  and  have  to  go  to  whisky  to  be  helped  up 
again." 

"  A  boy  would  have  to  be  paid,"  remarked  -the 
Squire  in  the  tone  he  habitually  used  when  making 
a  penitential  speech  in  class-meeting ;  "  and  here's 
summer-time  coming ;  there  isn't  much  business 
done  in  summer,  you  know." 

"  A  boy  won't  cost  more  than  a  dollar  a  week  the 
first  year,"  replied  the  clerk,  "  and  you'd  make  that 
out  of  the  people  who  sometimes  have  to  go  some 
where  else  and  trade  on  days  when  you're  not  here 
and  I'm  too  busy  to  wait  on  them.  There  isrit  so 
much  money  made  in  summer ;  but  women  come  to 
the  store  then  a  good  deal  more  than  they  do  in  the 
winter,  and  they  take  up  an  awful  amount  of  time. 


BUSINESS   VS.   PHILANTHROPY.  21 

Besides,  the  store  has  to  be  opened  about  two  hours 
earlier  every  morning  than  it  does  in  winter." 

The  merchant  pinched  his  gloomy  brow  and  re 
flected.  Doughty  looked  at  him  without  much 
hopefulness.  The  Squire's  heart  might  be  all  right, 
but  his  pocket-book  was  by  far  the  more  sensitive 
and  controlling  organ.  At  last  the  Squire  said, 

"  Well,  if  it's  for  your  good  that  you  want  the 
boy,  you  ought  to  be  willing  to  pay  his  salary. 
Besides " 

"  Excuse  me,  Squire  Tomplc,"  interrupted 
Doughty  ;  "  'tisn't  for  my  good  alone.  'Accursed 
be  he  who  putteth  the  bottle  to  his  brother's  lips.' 
I've  heard  you  quote  that  to  more  than  one  man 
right  in  this  store.  That's  what  you're  doing  to  me 
if  you  keep  on.  You  sell  half  as  much  again  as  any 
other  storekeeper  in  town,  and  why?  Because  I  am 
smart  enough  to  hold  custom.  I  haven't  cared  to 
do  anything  else.  I've  given  myself  up  to  making 
and  holding  custom  for  you,  and  I  took  to  whisky 
to  keep  me  up  to  my  work." 

"  Well,  haven't  I  paid  you  for  all  you've  done  ?  " 
demanded  the  proprietor. 

"Yes;  but  now  I  ask  you  to  pay  a  little  more. 
I've  told  you  why  ;  and  now  the  case  stands  just 


22  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

here: -which  do  you  care  for  most,  the  price  of  a 
boy  or  the  soul  of  your  faithful  clerk?  You  say  a 
man's  soul's  in  danger  if  he  drinks." 

"  Well,  I'll  tell  you,  George,"  replied  the  Squire, 
"  I'll  think  about  it.  I  want  to  do  what's  right ; 
but  I — I  don't  like  to  have  other  people's  sins  fast 
ened  on  me." 


CHAPTER   III. 

A  WET   BLANKET. 

THE  first  task  to  which  the  penitent  Crupp  de 
voted  himself  on  the  morning  after  the  meet 
ing  was  hardly  that  which  his  new  admirers  had 
supposed  he  would  attempt.  They  imagined  he 
would  knock  in  the  heads  of  his  barrels,  and  allow 
the  accursed  contents  to  flood  his  cellar ;  but  Crupp, 
on  the  contrary,  closed  out  the  entire  lot,  for  cash, 
at  the  highest  prices  he  could  exact  from  dealers 
with  whom  he  had  lately  been  in  competition. 
"  'Twas  a  splendid  lot  of  liquors,"  said  Crupp,  in 
the  course  of  an  explanatory  speech  at  the  post- 
office,  while  every  one  was  waiting  for  the  opening 
of  the  regular  daily  mail  ;  "  and  though  I  do  feel 
above  sellin'  'em  over  the  counter,  they're  better  for 
men  that  will  drink  than  any  that  have  ever  come 
into  Barton  since  I've  been  here." 

With  easier  mind  and  heavier  pocket,  the  ex- 
rumseller  then  called  upon  the  Rev.  Jonas  Wedge- 
well.  That  good  man's  domestic,  although  from  an 


24  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

ever-green  isle  whose  children  do  not  generally 
regard  whisky  with  abhorrence,  had  sympatheti 
cally  caught  the  spirit  of  her  employers,  and  as  she 
had  not  heard  of  Mr.  Crupp's  change  of  mind,  she 
left  him  standing  on  the  piazza  while  she  called  Mr. 
Wedgewell.  The  divine  descended  the  stairway 
two  steps  at  a  time,  dived  into  the  parlor,  and  had  a 
congratulatory  speech  half  delivered  before  he  dis 
covered  that  the  new  convert  was  not  there.  He 
wildly  shouted,  "  Mr.  Crupp  !  "  traced  the  penitent 
by  his  voice,  escorted  him  to  the  parlor  with  a  series 
of  hand-shakings,  shoulder-pattings,  and  bows,  and 
forcibly  dropped  him  into  an  elegant  chair  which 
Mrs.  Wedgewell  had  bought  only  to  show,  and  in 
which  no  member  of  the  family  had  ever  dared  to  sit. 
"  Ah,  my  valiant  friend,"  said  the  Rev.  Jonas, 
hastily  drawing  a  chair  near  Mr.  Crupp,  and  shed 
ding  upon  him  the  full  effulgence  of  a  countenance 
beaming  with  enthusiastic  adoration  ;  "  the  morning1 
songs  of  the  angels  of  God  must  have  been  sweeter 
this  morning  as  they  thought  of  your  noble  deed. 
You  have  cast  off  the  shackles  of  a  most  accursed 
bondage.  Doubtless  you  wish  to  fulfill  all  of  the 
conditions  of  the  liberty  with  which  Christ  hath 
made  you  free.  The  church " 


A   WET  BLANKET.  2$ 

"Excuse  me,  parson,"  interrupted  Mr.  Crupp ; 
"  but  I  don't  want  to  join  the  church — not  just 
now,  anyhow.  I— 

"  Wish  to  consecrate  your  ill-gotten  gains  to  the 
service  of  the  Lord,"  broke  in  the  good  pastor;  but 
Mr.  Crupp  frowned,  then  pouted,  then  compressed 
his  lips  tightly,  and  gave  so  sudden  a  twitch  as 
to  wrench  one  of  the  joints  of  the  sacred  chair,  as 
he  replied : 

"  No,  sir,  I  don't,  for  I  haven't  any  ill-gotten 
gains.  I  never  sold  anything  but  good  liquor,  and 
the  price  was  always  fair.  I  never  sold  any  liquor 
to  a  drunken  man,  either.  What  I  came  to  you  for 
is  this:  I  know  who  drinks,  when  they  drink,  what 
they  take,  and  I  know  pretty  well  why  they  drink. 
Some  of  them  signed  the  pledge  last  night,  and 
they're  going  to  have  an  awful  hard  job  in  keep 
ing  it." 

"  Prayer "  interrupted  the  minister,  but  the 

hard-headed  Crupp  quickly  completed  the  sentence. 

"  Prayer  never  cured  a  dyspeptic  stomach,  that 
I've  heard  of,  and  I  don't  believe  it'll  take  away  a 
man's  hunger  for  whisky.  These  fellows  that's 
been  drinking,  and  have  got  anything  to  'em,  can  be 
kept  from  falling  into  the  old  ways  again ;  but 


26  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

they've  got  to  be  handled  carefully,  and  what  I 
came  to  you  for  was  to  ask  who  was  going  to  do 
the  handling?  You  know  who's  free-handed  with 
money  in  your  congregation,  and  free-handed  men 
ought  to  be  free-hearted.  I'm  going  to  Dominie 
Brown  on  the  same  errand,  and  to  the  other 
preachers,  too." 

Mr.  Crupp's  speech  consumed  only  a  moment  of 
time,  but  its  effect  upon  the  preacher  was  wonder 
ful — and  depressing.  From  being  a  mirror  of  irre 
pressible  Christian  exultation,  Mr.  Wedgewell's  face 
became  as  solemn  as  it  ever  was  when  he  bemoaned 
from  the  pulpit  the  apathy  of  the  elect.  His  eyes 
enlarged  behind  his  glasses,  and  he  stared  for  a 
moment  in  an  abstracted  manner  at  a  dreadful 
chromo  which  hung  upon  his  wall — a  chromo  at 
which  no  one  in  active  possession  of  his  mental 
faculties  could  possibly  have  looked  so  long.  But 
the  old  pastor  had  a  heart  so  great  that  even  Jiis 
theology  had  been  unable  to  wall  it  in,  and  after  a 
moment  of  inevitable  despondency  he  realized  that 
Crupp  was  intent  upon  doing  good. 

11  Mr.  Crupp,"  said  he,  turning  his  head  suddenly, 
and  regaining  a  portion  of  his  earlier  expression  of 
countenance,  "  I  do  not  fully  comprehend  your  in- 


A  WET  BLANKET.  27 

tention,  but  I  can  see  that  it  is  good.  May  I  ask 
what  the  people  of  God  can  do  for  these  beings  who 
have  boen  under  the  dominion  of  alcohol?" 

"  Well,  it's  a  long  story,"  replied  the  old  bar 
tender.  "Among  them  that  signed,  there  isn't  one 
in  ten  that  ever  drank,  and  of  them  that  drank, 
half  of  'em'll  take  something  before  night." 

"  And  break  their  solemn  vow  !  Awful !  awful !  " 
ejaculated  the  minister. 

"  Yes,"  said  Crupp,  "  'tis  awful ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  there's  some  that's  in  earnest.  There's  Tom 
Adams,  now — he  that  drives  the  brick-yard  team. 
Tom's  a  good,  square,  honest  fellow,  and  he  loves 
his  family,  but  I  don't  see  how  he's  going  to  stop 
drinking.  He  can't  work  without  it  ;  leastways, 
he  can't  work  along  the  way  he's  working  now. 
Deacon  Jones  ought  to  give  him  easier  work  to  do 
until  he  can  bring  himself  around;  but  Deacon 
Jones  won't  waste  his  money  in  that  way,  if  he  is 
a  member  of  your  church.  Then  there's  old  Bun- 
ley :  there  isn't  anything  to  him.  He's  been  drink 
ing  and  drinking  and  drinking  this  forty  year,  he 
says,  and  yet  he  was  well  brought  up,  and  he  can't 
keep  himself  from  going  to  church  every  Sunday. 
He's  got  some  children  that  ain't  grown  yet,  and  if 


28  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

some  of  the  storekeepers  would  only  give  him  credit 
without  ever  expecting  to  see  their  money  again, 
the  old  fellow  wouldn't  get  down-hearted  so  often, 
and  maybe  he  could  quit  drinking.  As  far  as  taking 
care  of  his  family  goes,  he  isn't  good  for  much  the 
way  he  is  ;  he  borrows  from  soft-hearted  fellows  who 
can't  afford  to  lose  as  well  as  the  storekeepers  can, 
and  maybe  he  steals  sometimes — I  don't  say  he 
does,  mind.  At  any  rate,  the  biggest  part  of  his 
support  comes  out  of  the  public,  and  as  the  pub 
lic  can't  help  itself,  it  ought  to  be  sensible  enough 
to  try  to  make  the  old  chap  feel  and  act  like  a 
man." 

11  Bless  me  !  "  exclaimed  Mr.  Wedgewell,  who  had 
through  all  Mr.  Crupp's  delivery  sat  erect  with  his 
hands  upon  his  knees,  and  his  eyes  and  mouth  wide 
open.  "  I  assure  you,  my  dear  sir,  that  I  never  had 
an  idea  that  the  success  of  the  temperance  cause 
depended  upon  so  many  conditions,  and  I  also  beg 
to  assure  you  " — here  the  Reverend  Jonas  hastily 
proffered  his  right  hand — "that  I  appreciate  and 
admire  the  spirit  which  has  prompted  you  to  exam 
ine  this  subject  in  so  many  of  its  bearings,  and  to 
endeavor  to  throw  light  upon  it.  But  surely  all 
the — the  men  who,  as  you  express  it,  have  been 


A   WET  BLANKET.  2Q 

drinking — surely  these  cannot  be  constrained  to 
continue  by  conditions  similar  to  those  which  you 
have  instanced?  There  must  be  some  who,  if  only 
they  exercise  their  will-power,  will  succeed  in  put 
ting  their  vile  enemy  under  their  feet  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  replied  Crupp,  "  there  are  such.  Lots  of 
young  fellows  drink  only  because  they  think  it's 
smart,  and  because  they  haven't  got  man  enough  in 
them  to  stop  when  they  want  to.  They're  like  a 
lot  of  wolves — plucky  enough  when  they're  together, 
but  a  live  rooster  could  scare  one  of  them  if  he 
caught  him  alone.  Pm  going  to  look  out  for  that 
crowd  myself;  they  need  somebody  to  preach  to  'em 
wherever  he  can  catch  'em,  and  I  know  where  they 
hang  out.  But  I'm  not  through  with  the  other  kind 
yet.  There's  Fred  Macdonald,  he's  going  to  be  the 
hardest  man  to  manage  in  the  whole  lot.  Good 
family,  you  know — got  a  judge  for  a  father,  and 
ambitious  as  the ambitious  as  Napoleon  Bona 
parte.  He's  in  with  all  the  steamboat  fellows,  and 
whisky  is  an  angel  alongside  of  some  things  they 
carry.  They'll  ruin  him,  sure.  Steamboating  looks 
like  something  big  to  him,  you  know  ;  it  shows  off 
better  than  country  stores  and  saw-mills.  It's  no 
use  talkin'  to  him  ;  I've  tried  it  once  or  twice,  for  I 


30  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

know  the  steamboat  people  of  old  ;  but  he  as  good 
as  told  me  to  mind  my  own  business.  Now  if  some 
of  the  business  men  could  get  up  something  enter 
prising,  and  put  Fred  at  the  head  of  it,  on  condition 
that  he  wouldn't  drink  any  more,  they  might  make 
money  and  save  him  from  going  to  the — the  bad. 
/'//  put  some  money  into  the  thing,  for  I  believe  in 
Fred.  Of  course  he'll  have  to  be  watched  a  little,  for 
he  maybe  too  venturesome ;  but  he  can  get  more 
trade  and  get  more  work  out  of  his  men  than  any 
other  man  in  this  county." 

"  Mr.  Crupp,"  said  the  minister,  again  taking  the 
hand  of  the  newly-made  reformer,  and  laying  his 
own  left  hand  affectionately  upon  Mr.  Crupp's  right 
elbow,  "  I  cannot  find  words  adequate  to  the  ex 
pression  of  my  admiration  of  your  earnestness  in 
this  great  moral  movement.  But  I  must  confess 
that  your  treatment  of  the  subject  is  one  to  which 
I  am  utterly  unaccustomed.  I  have  been  wont  to 
regard  intemperance  solely  as  an  indication  of  an  in 
firm  will  and  a  depraved  appetite,  but  your  theory 
seems  plausible ;  indeed,  I  do  not  see  that  either  of 
our  respective  standpoints  need  be  wrotig.  But, 
with  regard  to  the  employment  of  the  reformatory 
means  you  suggest,  I  am  not  a  capable  adviser.  It 


A   WET  BLANKET.  31 

might  be  well  for  you  to  consult  some  of  our  lead 
ing  business  men." 

"  That's  what  I  am  going  to  do,"  replied  Crupp. 
"  And  I  am  going  to  see  the  doctors,  too,  and  all  the 
other  ministers.  What  I  want  o^  you  is,  to  back  me 
up  ;  preach  at  these  fellows  that  are  well  enough  off 
to  make  themselves  useful." 

"I'll  do  it!"  replied  the  minister  with  emphasis. 
"A  suitable  text  has  already  providentially  entered 
my  mind:  *  Am  I  my  brother's  keeper?'  Three 
heads  and  application :  First,  demonstrate  that  every 
man  is  his  brother's  keeper;  second,  show  how  in 
the  divine  economy  it  is  wise  that  this  should  be  so; 
third,  the  example  of  Christ ;  application,  our  duty 
to  the  needy  in  our  midst.  Another  text  suggests 
itself:  '  We,  then,  that  are  strong  ought  to  bear  the 
infirmities  of  the  weak.'  And  yet  another  :•'  Give 
strong  drink  unto  him  that  is  ready  to  perish  ;  ' 
argument  to  be  that  if  the  Inspired  Word  justifies 
such  action  as  that  implied  by  the  text,  and  if  alco 
hol  is  the  demon  we  believe  it  to  be,  it  is  our  duty 
to  prevent,  by  any  means  in  our  power,  people  from 
reaching  a  condition  in  which  such  a  terrible  remedy 
must  be  used.  I  beg  your  pardon,  my  dear  Mr. 
Crupp,"  exclaimed  the  minister,  springing  excitedly 


32  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

from  his  chair  ;  "  but  if  you  have  any  other  calls  to 
make,  I  will  repair  at  once  to  my  study  and  pre- 
pa~e  a  discourse  based  upon  one  of  these  texts. 
Excuse  my  seeming  rudeness  in  thus  abruptly 
closing  our  interview,  but  my  soul  is  on  fire — on 
fire  with  ardor  which  I  cannot  but  believe  is  from 
heaven." 

"  Oh,  certainly,"  replied  Mr.  Crupp,  rising  quite 
briskly.  "  Business  is  business  ;  it's  so  in  the  liquor 
trade,  I  know,  and  I  suppose  it  is  in  preaching.  I'll 
go  down  and  see  Squire  Tomple,  I  guess." 

The  Rev.  Jonas  Wedgewell  dropped  abruptly  into 
a  chair,  and  the  fire  with  which  his  soul  had  been 
consuming  seemed  suddenly  to  expire.  His  face 
became  blank  and  expressionless,  his  lower  jaw 
dropped  a  little,  and  he  gasped, 

"  Squire  Tomple  ?  I  had  a  discouraging  conversa 
tion  with  him  only  yesterday  morning  on  a  subject 
involving  very  nearly  the  ideas  which  you  have  ad 
vanced.  His  very  estimable  clerk,  George  Doughty, 
who  signed  the  pledge  at  our  meeting,  asserted  that 
his  work  must  decrease  in  volume  in  order  that  he 
might  continue  faithful ;  so  I  made  haste  to  inter 
cede  for  him  with  his  employer,  but  I  Tlid  not 
meet  with  that  encouragement  which  I  had  hoped 


A   WET  BLANKET.  33 

for.  Brother  Tomple  intimated  that  temperance 
was  temperance  and  business  was  business,  and 
even  made  some  remarks  which  have  since  seemed 
to  me  to  contain  implications  that  I  was  unduly 
concerned  about  his  affairs."  « 

"  Temple's  a — a  hog,  if  he  is  a  church  member," 
replied  the  irreverent  Crupp ;  "  but  he's  got  to  make 
himself  useful  if  plain  talk  will  do  it.  It  takes  all 
kinds  of  men  to  make  a  world,  parson,  or  to  make 
men  act  like  men  to  their  neighbors.  Perhaps  if 
you  preachers  come  down  on  rich  men  who  hoard 
their  money,  and  poor  men  that  are  about  as  stingy 
with  how-d'ye-do's,  and  if  business  men  show  the 
public  that  it's  as  cheap  to  reform  a  pauper  as  it  is 
to  support  him,  and  that  it  isn't  the  thing  to  stand 
by,  while  a  man's  killing  himself,  without  sayin'  a 
word  or  spendin'  a  cent  to  prevent  him — perhaps  we 
can  be  of  some  use  in  the  world.  Good  day,  par 
son." 

3* 


CHAPTER  IV. 

REFORM   WITH   MONEY   IN   IT. 

ADAMS,  driver  of  the  brick-yard  wagon, 
and  signer  of  one  of  the  pledges  circulated  at 
the  great  temperance  meeting,  was  certainly  a  man 
worth  saving.  He  had  a  wife  and  was  rich  in 
children.  His  wife  was  faithful,  good-natured,  and 
industrious,  and  his  children  were  of  that  bright, 
irrepressible  nature  which  is  about  the  most  valua 
ble  of  inheritances  in  this  land  where  other  inherit 
ances  do  not  average  largely  in  money  value.  For 
the  good  of  such  a  group  it  was  very  desirable- that 
the  head  of  the  family  should  be  in  the  constant 
possession  of  strong  arms  and  all  his  wits.  And  even 
for  his  own  sake  Tom  was  worth  a  great  deal  more 
attention  than  men  of  his  kind  ever  receive.  He 
was  perfectly  honest,  a  hard  worker,  cheerier  in 
temperament  than  any  pastor  in  the  village,  quicker- 
witted  than  most  of  the  lawyers  within  the  judicial 
circuit  upon  which  the  town  of  Barton  was  situated, 
and  more  generous  in  proportion  to  his  means  than 


REFORM   WITH    MONEY   IN   IT.  35 

any  of  his  well-to-do  fellow-citizens.  During  the 
season  for  making  and  delivering  bricks  he  worked 
from  sunrise  to  sunset,  rendered  fair  count  to  seller 
and  buyer,  and  never  abused  his  employer's  horses. 
His  regular  pay  was  seventy-five  cents  per  day, 
which  sum,  in  a  land  where  flour  was  sold  at  two 
cents  per  pound  and  meat  was  only  twice  as  high  as 
flour,  and  a  comfortable  house  could  be  hired  at 
four  dollars  per  month,  paid  his  family  expenses. 
But  the  season  at  the  brick-yard  lasted  only  during 
six  months  of  the  twelve.  During  the  remaining  six 
months  Tom  gladly  did  any  work  he  could  find  :  h^ 
drove  teams  where  any  hauling  was  to  be  done, 
chopped  wood,  worked  in  the  pork-houses  where 
merchants  prepared  for  the  Southern  market  the 
fatted  hogs  which  were  the  principal  legal-tenders 
for  the  indebtedness  of  farmer  customers,  formed  part 
of  the  crew  of  one  of  t4ie  many  flatboats  which  con 
veyed  the  meat  to  market,  and  did  whatever  other 
work  he  could  find.  But  in  the  winter  season,  when 
the  family  appetite  was  most  industrious,  Tom  could 
not  find  employment  for  all  his  time,  while  the 
merchants  who  trusted  him  made  more  frequent 
requests  for  money  than  Tom  was  able  to  honor. 
When  he  was  idle,  he  found  himself  more  welcome 


36  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

at  the  liquor-shops  than  anywhere  else;  when  he 
grew  despondent  at  his  inability  to  pay,  he  sought 
solace  at  these  same  places;  when  in  the  steady 
work  and  long  hours  of  the  summer  season  he  be 
came  gradually  "  worked  out"  and  " used  up" — 
experiences  not  infrequent  with  Tom — he  went  to 
the  liquor-shops  for  the  only  relief  he  had  ever  been 
able  to  find.  His  experience  did  not  differ  greatly 
from  that  of  men  of  higher  social  standing,  who, 
under  similar  mental  and  physical  conditions,  drink 
high-priced  wines.  He  gradually  increased  the 
quantity  of  his  potations,  and  went  through  the 
successive  experiences  of  being  unmanned  by  liquor, 
striving  to  rebuild  himself  by  the  power  which  had 
broken  him,  becoming  by  turns  gay,  silly,  boister 
ous,  pugnacious,  sullen,  apathetic,  and  finally  peni 
tent.  Each  of  his  sprees  cost  him  several  days  in 
time  and  several  dollars  in  money — a  fact  which  no 
one  realized  more  clearly  than  Tom  himself;  yet 
the  feeling  which  had  made  him  take  the  first 
drinks  of  these  frightful  series  was  one  which  had 
its  seat  in  his  own  better  nature,  and  which  he  had 
many  times  found  more  powerful  than  every  in 
fluence  he  could  bring  to  bear  against  it.  He  had 
listened  to  many  a  private  lecture  on  the  subject  of 


REFORM   WITH   MONEY   IN   IT.  37 

his  weakness,  and  had  honestly  admitted  the  truth 
of  all  that  was  said  to  him  on  the  subject;  he  had 
signed  many  a  pledge  in  the  most  agonized  earnest, 
and  had  broken  every  one  of  them. 

On  the  Monday  which  followed  the  temperance 
meeting  Tom  Adams  was  nearly  frantic  with  his  old 
lodging.  The  rest  of  Sunday  had  been  a  hindrance 
rather  than  a  help  to  him,  for  he  had  already  suf 
fered  several  days  from  the  effects  of  abstaining 
from  his  usual  after-dinner  and  after-supper  pota 
tions.  The  amount  usually  drank  on  these  occa 
sions  had  not  been  great,  but  the  habit  had  for  some 
years  been  so  regular  that  his  amazed  and  indignant 
physique  protested  against  the  change.  Had  he 
been  capable  of  spiritually  withdrawing  himself 
from  the  world  on  the  day  of  the  Lord,  he  might 
have  found  help  and  strength ;  but  he  was  as  inca 
pable  of  such  a  thing  as  were  nine-tenths  of  the 
church-members  in  Barton.  While  he  remained  at 
home,  his  children  were  noisy  enough  to  have 
hurried  a  rapt  seer  back  to  the  realization  of  earthly 
things  ;  when  he  went  abroad  he  could  not,  as  was 
his  usual  Sunday  habit,  step  quietly  into  the  back 
door  of  Bayne's  liquor-store.  He  strolled  down  to 
the  stable-yard  of  the  Barton  House,  hoping  to  find 


38  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

some  one  with  whom  he  could  talk  horse ;  but  the 
hostler  was  not  in  sight,  and  the  stable-boy,  who 
had  been  heard  to  say  he  "  didn't  count  much  on 
them  fellers  what  signed  the  pledge  and  went  back 
on  their  friends,"  eyed  him  with  evident  disgust. 
In  the  street  he  met  people  going  to  and  from 
church  and  Sunday-school,  and  they  looked  at  him 
as  if  their  eyes  were  asking,  "  Are  you  keeping  your 
pledge?"  Then,  to  crown  all,  his  wife  gave  him 
such  a  beseeching  and  yet  doubting  look  every  time 
he  left  the  house  and  returned  to  it  that  he  almost 
hated  the  good  woman  for  her  affectionate  anxiety. 

Tom  was  up  bright  and  early  Monday  morning, 
and  though  he  soon  mounted  his  wagon  and  left 
his  wife's  eyes  behind  him,  he  found  his  longing 
for  liquor  as  close  to  him  as  ever.  Reaching  the 
brick-yard,  he  was  rather  startled  to  find  there 
Deacon  Jones,  his  employer,  and  owner  of  a  store 
as  well  as  the  kilns.  The  deacon  looked  at  him 
as  all  the  religious  people  had  done  on  Sunday, 
and  Tom  inwardly  cursed  him, 

"  How  are  you,  Tom  ?  "  inquired  the  deacon,  and 
then,  without  waiting  for  a  reply,  remarked  : 

"  There's  somethin'  I've  been  a-wantin'  to  talk  to 
you  'bout,  Tom,  an'  I  was  sure  o'  catchin'  you  here, 


REFORM   WITH    MONEY   IN   IT.  39 

so  I  came  over  before  breakfast.  You  signed  the 
pledge  t'other  night." 

This  latter  clause  was  delivered  with  an  accom 
panying  glance  which  caused  Tom  to  put  a  great 
deal  of  anger  into  his  reply,  although  his  words 
were  few. 

"  Yes,  an'  kep'  it,  too." 

"  I'm  glad  of  it,  Tom.  There's  been  times  when 
you  didn't,  you  know.  Well,  what  I  want  to  say 
is  this  :  Some  folks  say  that  some  men  drink  be 
cause  they  have  to  work  too  hard,  an'  because  they 
have  trouble.  Now,  mebbe — I  only  say  mebbe, 
mind — mcbbc  that's  what  upset  you  those  other 
times.  Now,  if  I  was  to  give  you  work  all  the  year 
round  at  seventy-five  cents  a  day,  an'  not  work  you 
more'n  ten  hours  a  day,  would  it  help  you  to  keep 
straight?" 

"Would  it?"  said  Tom,  scratching  his  head, 
wrinkling  his  brows,  and  eying  the  deacon  incredu 
lously  "  Why,  of  course  it  would." 

"Well,  then,"  said  the  deacon,  "I'll  do  it.  As 
long  as  the  brick  business  is  good  you  can  work  at 
haulin'  from  seven  to  twelve,  an'  one  to  six.  Don't 
you  s'pose  you  could  put  two  or  three  hundred  more 
brick  on  a  load  without  hurtin'  the  bosses?  I  don't 


40  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

want  to  lose  any  more'n  I  can  help,  you  know,  by 
cuttin'  down  your  time.  Rainy  days  I'll  keep  you 
busy  at  the  store  some  way;  them's  the  days  farm 
ers  can't  do  much  on  the  farm,  so  they  bring  their 
butter  and  eggs  to  town,  and  there's  a  sight  of  meas- 
ujin'  an'  weighin'  to  be  done.  An*  after  the  brick 
season's  over  I'll  find  you  somethin'  to  do  at  the 
store.  You  can  put  the  pork-house  an'  warehouse 
to  rights  before  the  packin'  season  begins,  an'  you 
can  weigh  the  corn  an'  wheat  an'  oats  an'  pork 
when  they  come  in,  and  mend  bags,  and  work  in  the 
pork-house  three  months  out  of  the  six.  You 
wouldn't  object  to  takin'  night-spells  in  the  pork- 
house  instead  of  day-spells,  would  you,  when  we 
have  to  work  day  and  night  ?  Night-wages  costs  us 
most,  you  know,  an'  you  ought  to  help  us  make 
up  what  we  lose  on  you  when  there's  nothin' 
doin'." 

"  Just  as  you  say,"  replied  Tom.  He  did  not  clasp 
the  deacon  in  a  grateful  embrace,  for  the  deacon  had, 
in  his  thrifty  way,  prevented  Tom  from  feeling  es 
pecially  grateful.  The  owner  of  the  brick-yard  had 
intimated  that  the  new  arrangement  was  for  Tom's 
especial  benefit,  but  his  later  remarks  caused  this 
feature  of  the  arrangement  to  speedily  disappear 


REFORM   WITH    MONEY   IN   IT.  41 

from  view.  But,  although  not  doubting  for  an  in 
stant  that  the  deacon  meant  to  get  his  money  back 
with  usury,  Tom  felt  his  heart  growing  lighter  every 
moment.  At  the  same  time  he  felt  angry  at  the 
deacon's  occasional  suggestions  that  the  arrange 
ments  were  partly  of  the  nature  of  charity.  So  he 
replied : 

"Just  as  you  say;  but,  deacon,  I  ain't  the  feller 
that  wants  money  for  work  I  don't  do,  you  know 
that.  The  arrangement  suits  me  first-rate,  but  I'm 
goin*  to  work  hard  for  my  money  ;  you  can  bet  all 
your  loose  change  on  that." 

"  Thomas  !  "  ejaculated  the  deacon  sternly,  "  I 
am  not  in  the  habit  of  betting.  It's  a  careless,  fool 
ish,  wasteful,  sinful  way  of  using  money." 

"That's  so,"  replied  Tom  reflectively;  "un 
less,"  he  continued,  "  you're  one  of  the  winnin' 
kind." 

"  It  is  a  business  I  don't  intend  to  go  into,  so  the 
less  said  of  it  the  better.  So  my  offer  suits  you, 
does  it?" 

"  I'll  shake  hands  on  it,"  replied  Tom,  extending 
his  hand. 

"Wait  a  moment,"  said  the  deacon,  retiring  his 
own  right  hand  to  a  conservative  position  behind 


42  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

his  back.  "  If  it  suits  you,"  continued  the  deacon 
impressively,  "  you  agree  to  stick  to  your  pledge  ; 
no  foolin'  with  whisky  again,  mind." 

"  Nary  drop,"  said  Tom,  with  great  emphasis. 
"Ten  minutes  ago  I  wouldn't  have  given  a  pewter 
dime  for  my  chance  of  sticking  it  out  through  the 
day,  but  now  I  wouldn't  give  a  cent  for  a  barr'l 
full  of  ten-year-old  rye." 

"  All  right,  then — shake  hands.  And  we  begin 
to-day — or  say  to-morrow — there's  lots  of  bricks 
wanted  to-day — here's  the  orders.  And  may  the 
Lord  help  you,  Thomas — help  you  to  hold  out 
steadfast  unto  the  end.  Now  I  reckon  I'll  get  home 
to  breakfast." 

As  the  deacon  walked  off  he  soliloquized  in  this 
manner : 

"  There  !  I  wonder  if  that'll  suit  Crupp  an' 
brother  \Vedgewell  ?  \Yhat  a  queer  team  them  two 
fellows  make !  Queer  that  Crupp  should  have 
bothered  me  two  hours  Saturday  night,  an'  the 
preacher  should  have  come  out  so  strong  about 
bein'  our  brothers'  keepers  the  very  next  day. 
'Twas  a  Christian  act  for  me  to  do,  too.  '  He  that 
converted!  a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  ways ' — 
ah!  blessed  be  the  promises.  An'  I  won't  lose  a 


REFORM   WITH    MONEY   IN    IT.  43 

cent  by  the  operation — /  can  keep  him  busy 
enough.  When  folks  know  what  I've  done  an' 
what  I  done  it  for,  I  guess  they'll  think  I've  got  my 
good  streaks  after  all.  I  declare,  I  ought  to  have 
told  him  I  couldn't  pay  for  days  when  he  was  sick ; 
'tain't  too  late  yet,  though — he  won't  back  out  on 
that  account.  Mcbbe  I  can  talk  him  into  j'ining 
the  church,  too — who  knows,  an'  some  day  in 
'xpericnce  mectin'  mebbe  he'll  tell  how  it  all  came 
about  through  me.  He  must  bring  his  dinners 
with  him  when  he's  workin'  about  the  store.  I 
ought  to  have  done  that  with  my  clerk  before  he 
took  to  lunchin'  off  the  crackers  and  cheese  busy 
days — these  little  things  all  cost.  But  it  does 
make  a  man  feel  good  to  do  kindnesses  to  his  fellow- 
men." 

As  for  Tom  Adams,  he  mounted  the  wagon, 
seized  the  reins,  and  exclaimed, 

"By  thunder!  'fore  I  haul  a  durned  brick,  I'Ujuft 
drive  home  by  the  back  way  and  tell  the  old  wo 
man.  Reckon  she  won't  look  at  me  any  more  in 
that  way  then.  Like  enough  he's  right  when  he 
says  some  says  mebbe  workin'  too  hard  makes  fel 
lows  drink.  It  never  got  into  my  head  before, 
though." 


44  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

As  Tom  drove  through  a  back  street  in  which  Mr. 
Crupp  lived,  that  worthy  stared  at  the  empty  wagon 
inquiringly. 

"  The  old  man's  engaged  me  for  a  year,  at  six  bits 
a  day,  and  only  ten  hours  a  day  to  work,"  shouted 
Tom  in  explanation. 

"The  devil!"  replied  the  new  reformer,  and 
seizing  his  hat  he  hurried  off  to  the  Rev.  Jonas 
Wedgewell.  The  pastor  was  discovered  through 
an  open  window  at  his  matutinal  repast,  and 
the  eager  Crupp  thrust  his  head  in  the  window  and 
shouted, 

"  First  blood,  parson  !  Old  Jones  has  hired  Tom 
for  a  year,  and  he's  only  got  ten  hours  a  day  to 
work." 

The  holy  man  raised  his  hands,  despite  the  in- 
cumbrances  of  half  a  biscuit  and  a  coffee  cup,  and 
exclaimed, 

"  Bless  the  Lord  for  the  first  fruits  of  the  seed  so 
newly  sown.  Who  would  have  thought  so  un 
demonstrative  a  man  would  have  been  the  first  to 
heed  the  word  of  exhortation  ?  " 

"  He's  the  first  to  see  money  in  it — that's  why," 
explained  Crupp. 

"  My  dear  sir,  do  you  really  ascribe  Deacon  Jones's 


REFORM   WITH    MONEY   IN   IT.  45 

meritorious  action  to  sordid  motives  ?"  asked  the 
old  pastor,  opening  his  mouth  and  eyes  as  if  the 
answer  for  which  he  waited  was  to  come  through 

o 

them. 

"  Hum — well,  no — I  reckon  'twas  a  little  mixed," 
replied  Mr.  Crupp,  meditatively  analyzing  a  blossom 
of  a  honeysuckle  growing  by  the  pastor's  window. 
"  I  dinged  at  him,  you  preached  at  him,  he  thought 
it  over,  and  whatever  Jonathan  Jones  thinks  over 
long  is  pretty  sure  to  have  money  in  it  somewhere 
in  the  end.  He'll  make  mor'n  he'll  lose  on  Tom, 
an'  it's  best  he  should — he'll  have  a  better  heart  to 
try  another  experiment  of  the  same  sort  one  of 
these  days.  But  I  didn't  mean  to  interrupt  your 
breakfast — beg  your  pardon,  Mrs.  Wedgewell  and 
young  ladies,  for  not  ringing  the  bell,  but  I  was  too 
full  of  the  news  to  behave  myself.  Good  by." 

And  Mr.  Crupp  started  for  his  own  breakfast- 
table,  while  the  Reverend  Jonas's  eyes  seemed 
directed  at  some  object  just  out  of  sight,  as  he 
abstractedly  raised  his  coffee  cup  to  his  lips. 


CHAPTER  V. 

AN   ASTONISHED   VIRGINIAN. 

WHY  old  Bunley  had  made  Barton  his  place 
of  residence  nobody  knew.  The  most  plau 
sible  theory  ever  advanced  on  the  subject  came 
from  the  former  proprietor  of  the  Barton  House, 
who  said  that  Bunley,  happening  to  be  traveling 
that  way,  had  found  the  brandy  at  the  Barton 
House  so  good  that  he  hadn't  the  heart  to  leave  it. 
The  brandy  lasted  so  long  that  old  Bunley — then 
twenty  years  younger — while  consuming  it  became 
acquainted  with  nearly  everybody  in  the  town  ;  and 
as  he  had  no  engagements  that  restrained  him  from 
making  himself  agreeable,  he  found  himself  well 
liked,  and  entreated  to  make  his  home  at  Barton. 
He  reported — and  his  report  was  afterward  verified 
— that  he  was  the  son  of  a  .Virginia  planter,  and  was 
unpopular  at  home  because  he  had  made  a  runaway 
match  with  a  splendid  girl,  whose  only  fault  was 
that  her  family  did  not  rank  very  high.  Bunley's 
father  had  cut  his  son  off  with  a  thousand  dollars, 


AN  ASTONISHED   VIRGINIAN.  47 

but  had  considerately  sent  the  money  with  the  let 
ter  of  dismissal ;  so  the  happy  couple  were  leisurely 
spending  the  money  and  waiting  for  the  old  gentle 
man  to  relent,  as  irate  fathers  always  do  in  books. 
But  while  Bunley  was  enjoying  the  hospitalities  of 
Barton,  annoyed  only  by  the  fact  that  his  purse  was 
growing  light,  he  heard  of  his  father's  sudden  death 
and  of  the  inheritance  by  an  unloving  brother  of  the 
entire  estate.  Then  the  young  bridegroom  attempt 
ed  to  obtain  money  by  borrowing,  for  this  was  the 
only  method  of  money-getting  he  understood  ;  but 
the  small  success  which  attended  his  efforts  did  not 
pay  for  the  annoyance  which  his  soulless  creditors 
gave  him.  Then  he  tried  gambling,  and,  by  devot 
ing  his  mind  to  it,  succeeded  so  well  that  no  one 
but  an  occasional  commercial  traveler,  to  whom 
Bunley's  ways  were  unknown,  would  play  with  him. 
Then,  under  the  guise  of  being  clerk  of  the  Barton 
House,  he  became  its  actual  barkeeper,  and  at 
tracted  so  much  custom  away  from  the  other  liquor- 
sellers  that  the  grateful  proprietor  took  him  into 
partnership,  and,  dying  a  year  later,  bequeathed  the 
whole  business  to  him.  But  the  good  brandy  which 
had  first  persuaded  Bunley  to  stop  at  Barton  con 
tinued  its  fascinations,  and  the  new  proprietor  of 


48  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

the  Barton  House,  while  liked  by  all  travelers,  grew 
so  unpopular  with  purveyors  of  flour,  meat,  and 
other  hotel  necessities  that  the  sheriff  was  finally 
called  upon  to  settle  the  differences  between  them 
by  disposing  of  the  hotel  property  at  auction. 

After  that  Bunley  ran  to  seed,  to  use  an  expres 
sion  common  in  Barton.  How  he  lived  during  the 
twenty  years  which  followed  was  not  well  under 
stood.  His  wife  died,  and  it  was  understood  that 
he  married  some  money  the  second  time;  but  it  was 
none  the  less  whispered  about  town  that  Bunley 
had  been  seen  at  night  to  borrow  at  woodpiles 
whose  owners  he  had  not  consulted.  He  went  upon 
mighty  sprees,  and  carried  the  bouquet  of  liquor 
wherever  he  went.  He  started  a  small  groggery  of 
his  own,  in  which  many  bright  boys  learned  to  drink. 
He  had  long  since  ruined  the  credit  which  he  ob 
tained  on  the  strength^of  his  second  wife's  property, 
for  he  never  paid  an  account. 

And  yet  the  most  aggrieved  of  Bunley's  creditors 
could  not  help  being  soft-hearted  when  they  saw 
the  old  man  in  church,  as  he  was  every  Sunday 
morning  with  his  two  boys.  The  gentleman  which 
was  in  old  Bunley  then  showed  itself  in  his  face  and 
manner,  and  it  did  seem  too  bad  that  any  one  who 


AN   ASTONISHED   VIRGINIAN.  49 

could  look  and  act  so  much  like  a  man  should  not 
be  trusted  to  the  extent  of  a  dollar's  worth  of  sugar 
or  a  hundred  pounds  of  flour.  Squire  Tomple  had 
thought  so  one  Sunday,  and  as  the  Squire  strove  to 
keep  worldly  thoughts  out  of  his  mind  on  the  Lord's 
day,  his  mind  became  filled  with  old  Bunley — so 
much  so,  that  on  the  following  Monday  he  decoyed 
Bunley  into  his  store,  and  talked  so  pleasantly  to 
him  that  the  old  gentleman  actually  made  the 
request  for  which  the  Squire  hoped.  He  bought 
rather  more  than  the  Squire  had  meant  to  sell  him 
on  credit,  but  his  promise  of  early  payment  was  so 
distinct  and  emphatic  that  the  Squire's  doubt  was 
not  fairly  established  for  many  months.  This  story 
~xi  all  its  details  was  told  by  the  Squire  to  Mr. 
Crupp,  after  that  gentleman  announced  to  him  that 
something  should  be  done  for  old  Bunley. 

"  That  was  because  you  didn't  go  about  the  job  in 
the  right  way,"  said  Crupp.  "  He's  got  just  enough 
conceit  to  suppose  that  he's  going  to  pay  all  his 
bills  some  day,  and  he  feels  that  when  the  time 
comes  your  profit'll  pay  for  your  kindness.  That 
conceit  of  his  is  just  what  needs  to  be  taken  down 
— it's  got  to  be  done  kindly — so  that  he  under 
stands  that  whatever  he  gets  comes  out  of  pure 


5O  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

charity  and  the  desire  to  make  him  comfortable, 
even  at  a  loss.  Now,  he  and  his  little  family  can 
live  on  about  a  dollar  a  day.  I'll  stand  half  the  ex 
pense  of  supporting  him  for  three  months  if  you'll 
do  the  other  half,  and  we'll  talk  plain,  good-natured 
English  to  him,  and  let  him  understand  he's  a 
pauper.  That'll  put  him  on  his  mettle.  What  do 
you  say  ?  " 

The  Squire  looked  grave  at  once — as  grave  as  he 
had  appeared  when  an  uninsured  hogshead  of  sugar 
belonging  to  him  had  fallen  from  a  steamboat  gang 
plank  into  the  river,  and  melted.  The  proposition 
seemed  to  take  his  breath  away,  in  fact ;  but  in  a 
moment  or  two  he  regained  it. 

"  Look  here,  Crupp,"  said  he,  "  temperance  is  all 
very  well ;  but  I  don't  think  it's  my  business  to 
stand  part  of  the  expenses  of  reforming  everybody, 
when  I  haven't  had  anything  to  do  with  making 
drunkards.  With  you  the  case  is  different.  You 
say  your  liquors  were  always  good  ;  but,  like  enough, 
that  made  men  all  the  fonder  of  drinking  the  in 
fernal  things.  You're  a  public-spirited  citizen,  but 
you  can't  deny  that  you've  had  a  thousand  times 
more  to  do  with  making  drunkards  than  I  have. 
The  very  fact  that  you  are  a  decent  fellow  yourself 


AN  ASTONISHED   VIRGINIAN.  51 

has  made  drinking  halfway  respectable  in  Barton. 
The  crime's  right  at  your  own  door,  and  you  ought 
to  pay  for  it.  You " 

The  Squire  paused.  Mr.  Crupp's  face  was  very 
white  and  his  teeth  were  tightly  set.  Mr.  Crupp 
had  been  known  to  throw  a  disorderly  visitor  at  his 
bar  halfway  across  the  street ;  and  although  the 
Squire  knew  that  his  own  avoirdupois  was  too  great 
to  be  treated  so  contemptuously,  he  had  no  desire 
to  feel  the  weight  of  Crupp's  fist.  Besides,  Crupp 
was  a  customer  who  bought  a  great  deal  and  paid 
promptly,  and  the  Squire  did  not  like  to  offend  him 
and  lose  his  custom.  So  the  Squire  paused. 

"  Go  right  on,"  said  Mr.  Crupp  very  quietly. 
"  I'll  not  bear  any  malice.  I've  said  a  great  many 
worse  things  to  myself.  Don't  hold  in  anything 
you've  got  on  your  mind." 

"  I'm  done,"  said  the  Squire,  looking  relieved  and 
extending  his  hand.  "  Crupp,  I  think  a  good  deal 
of  you,  and  I'm  ashamed  of  myself  for  boiling  over 
as  I  did.  But  folks  talk  to  me  as  if  I  was  made  of 
money.  I  paid  out  a  good  deal  on  the  expense 
of  the  meeting;  the  parson's  been  at  me  to  help 
every  lazy  drunkard  to  get  work ;  George  Doughty 
wants  more  pay  or  less  work,  so  he  won't  have  such 


52  THE   BARTON  EXPERIMENT. 

a  hankering  after  liquor ;  and  now  to  be  asked  to  help 
old  Bunley,  that's  owed  me  money  a  long  time  and 
never  paid  it,  that  came  near  helping  one  of  my 
boys  to  a  taste  for  liquor,  that  helps  himself  at  my 
woodpile — it's  too  much,  that's  all." 

"  Squire,"  said  Crupp,  "  isn't  there  something  in 
your  Bible  that's  not  complimentary  to  men  who 
say  to  the  needy,  '  Depart  :  be  ye  warmed  and  fed,' 
but  don't  put  their  hands  into  their  pockets  to  help 
the  poor  wretches  along?  I  tell  you  that  a  man 
that's  got  the  love  of  drink  fixed  in  every  muscle  in 
his  body  and  every  drop  of  his  blood  is  worse  off 
than  any  cold  and  hungry  man  you  ever  saw.  Such 
men  sometimes  help  themselves  out  of  their  trouble, 
and  stick  to  cold  water ;  but  the  man  that  does  it  is 
more  of  a  hero,  and  he's  got  better  stuff  in  him, 
than  any  other  sort  of  sinner  that  ever  repents. 
He's  got  to  be  helped  just  like  drowning  men  have 
to  be,  and  you've  got  to  take  hold  of  him  just  as 
you  do  of  a  drowning  man,  by  whatever  part  you 
can  get  the  tightest  grip  on.  Bunley's  pride's  the 
only  handle  you  can  find  on  him,  and  you  can't  get 
at  that  except  by  showing  that  you  think  enough 
of  him  to  sink  money  in  him." 

The  Squire  cast  about  in  his  mind  for  some  argu- 


AN  ASTONISHED   VIRGINIAN.  53 

ment  in  defense  of  his  money ;  but,  as  he  found  none, 
he  acted  like  a  good  diplomatist,  and  started  to  talk 
against  time  by  uttering  some  promising  generali 
zations. 

"  I  always  meant,  and  I  still  mean,"  said  he,  "  to 
do  good  with  my  money.  That's  what  it  was  given 
me  for.  I'm  only  the  Lord's  steward " 

"  And  right  here  in  Barton  is  where  the  Lord  put 
you  to  do  it,"  said  Crupp.  "  Here's  where  you 
made  your  money  ;  here  are  the  people  who  know 
you  and  don't  suspect  you  of  caring  any  less  for 
your  money  than  other  folks  do  for  theirs ;  here 
are  the  people  you  know  all  about  ;  you  know  their 
weaknesses  and  their  good  points,  and  every  dollar 
you  spend  on  them  you  can  watch,  and  see  that  it 
does  its  duty." 

"  When  I  know  that  helping  a  man  will  be  sure  to 
reform  him,"  began  the  Squire,  when  again  his  com 
panion  interrupted  him  : 

"  Did  you  ever  read  of  Christ's  letting  a  man  suf 
fer  for  fear  that  if  he  cured  him  or  fed  him  he 
might  get  sick  or  hungry  again  ?  If  I  read  straight, 
he  helped  everybody  that  came  to  him,  and  every 
body  that  needed  help.  I  suppose  loafers  were  as 
thick  in  Judaea  as  they  are  in  Barton  ;  why,  when  he 


54  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

healed  those  ten  lepers  there  was  only  one  of  them 
decent  enough  to  come  back  and  say  "  Thank  you." 
I've  got  money  enough  to  take  Bunley  on  my  own 
shoulders  for  a  little  while,  and  I'm  going  to  spend 
a  good  deal  on  such  fellows ;  but  they  want  to  see 
that  they're  thought  something  of  by  men  who 
never  sold  whisky,  who  never  made  anything  out  of 
them,  who  are  enough  in  earnest  to  do  something 
for  them  that  costs  more  than  talk  does.  I  know  it 
isn't  easy,  but  it's  got  to  be  done — that  is,  if  Chris 
tianity  is  true." 

Crupp's  last  shot  told.  Squire  Tomple  was  or 
thodox,  but  he  was  not  without  reflective  capacity, 
and  many  had  been  his  twinges  of  conscience  at  his 
practical  rejection  of  undoubted  deductions  which 
he  had  drawn  from  Christ's  teachings  and  example. 
But  on  this  particular  occasion,  as  on  many  others, 
he  was  not  defeated  ;  he  was  only  temporarily  de 
moralized.  In  a  moment  he  was  on  the  defensive 
again,  and  suddenly  raised  his  head  and  opened  his 
lips  ;  but,  whatever  his  idea  was,  it  remained  un 
spoken  ;  for  in  the  eye  of  Crupp,  which  had  been 
intently  scrutinizing  his  face  and  through  it  his 
heart,  he  detected  a  softness  and  haziness  unusual 
in  the  eyes  of  men.  The  Squire,  not  without  a 


AN   ASTONISHED   VIRGINIAN.  55 

struggle,  became  at  once  shamefaced  and  obedient, 
and  said  hurriedly, 

"  Crupp,  you're  a  good,  square  man  ;  I'm  proud 
to  know  you,  and  I'll  do  what  you  like — for  old 
Bunley,  that  is." 

Great  was  the  surprise  of  Bunley  himself,  when 
he  answered  a  knock  at  his  door  a  few  minutes  later, 
to  find  Squire  Tomple  and  Mr.  Crupp  upon  his  front 
stoop,  both  of  them  looking  and  acting  as  if  ex 
tremely  embarrassed.  But  old  Bunley  never  forgot 
his  Virginia  breeding,  not  even  before  a  couple  of 
creditors ;  so  he  invited  both  gentlemen  to  seats  on 
the  top  step,  and  then  sat  down  between  them. 

The  Squire  looked  appealingly  at  Crupp  ;  Crupp 
winked  encouragingly  at  the  Squire  ;  the  Squire 
coughed  feebly  ;  Crupp  plucked  a  stem  of  timothy 
grass,  and  gazed  at  it  as  if  he  had  never  seen  such  a 
thing  before  ;  the  Squire  took  out  a  pocket-knife,  and 
began  to  scrape  his  finger-nails,  and  then  Crupp  re 
marked  that  it  was  a  fine  day.  Bunley  having  cheer 
fully  assented  to  this  expression  of  opinion,  there 
was  a  moment  or  two  of  awkward  silence,  which  was 
finally  relieved  by  Bunley,  who  drew  from  his  pocket 
a  plug  of  tobacco,  from  which  he  took  a  bite,  after 
first  offering  it  to  his  visitors.  A  little  more  facial 


56  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

pantomime  went  on  between  Tomple  and  Crupp, 
and  then  the  Squire  spoke. 

"  Bunley,"  said  he,  "  you  don't  seem  to  get  along 
very  fast  in  the  world." 

"  That's  a  fact,"  answered  Bunley  with  hearty 
emphasis.  "  Luck  seems  to  go  against  me,  no  mat 
ter  how  I  lay  myself  out.  There  ain't  a  man  in  this 
town  that  wants  to  do  the  right  thing  any  more 
than  I  do,  but  somehow  I  don't  get  the  chance.  I 
signed  the  pledge  t'other  night  at  the  meetin' ;  but 
how  I'm  goin'  to  stick  to  it,  with  all  the  trouble  I'm 
in,  is  more  than  I  can  see  through." 

"  We've  come  down  to  help  you  do  it,"  said  the 
Squire. 

"  To  help  you  with  money — not  talk,"  supple 
mented  Crupp. 

Bunley  looked  at  both  men  quickly,  from  under 
the  extreme  inner  edge  of  his  upper  eyelid. 

"  We  propose,  between  us,  to  show  you  that  we're 
in  dead  earnest  to  help  you  keep  the  pledge,"  con 
tinued  the  Squire.  "  We're  going  to  give  you,  week 
after  week,  whatever  you  need  to  live  on  for  the 
next  three  months,  so  you  won't  have  any  excuse 
for  drinking  to  drown  trouble,  and  so  you'll  have  a 
chance  to  find  something  to  do." 


AN  ASTONISHED   VIRGINIAN.  57 

Old  Bunley  sprang  to  his  feet.  "  Gentlemen," 
said  he,  "  you're — you  re  gentlemen.  It's  the  first 
time  in  my  life  that  anybody  ever  cared  that  much 
for  me,  though.  You  shan't  lose  anything  by  it,  I 
promise  you  that ;  I'll  pay  you  back  again  the  first 
chance  I  get  to  make  anything." 

"  We  don't  want  it  back,"  said  Crupp.  "  We 
won't  take  it  back.  We  want  to  give  it  to  you,  out 
and  out " 

"  To  show  you  that  it'sjjw*  that  we're  interested 
in,  not  ourselves,"  interrupted  the  Squire. 

Then  Old  Virginia  came  to  the  surface  again  ; 
Bunley  seemed  to  grow  an  inch  or  two,  and  to  swell 
several  more  as  he  replied, 

"  I'm  not  a  pauper,  gentlemen." 

"  Certainly  not,"  said  the  Squire  hastily  ;  "  but  you 
can't  pay  your  debts  nor  your  current  expenses, 
and  Crupp  and  I  are  a  little  ahead  in  the  world,  and 
willing  to  give  you  a  hundred,  say — a  little  at  a 
time." 

"You've  got  a  couple  of  boys  to  bring  up,  you 
know,  Bunley,"  suggested  Crupp. 

"  And  they  ought  to  go  among  the  best  people, 
too,"  said  the  Squire.  "  You  came  of  a  good  fami- 

ly " 

3* 


58  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

"  And  their  mother  was  a  lady,  too — every  inch 
of  her!"  exclaimed  Bunley. 

"  Of  course  she  was,"  said  Crupp.  "  But,  to  come 
back  to  business,  we  don't  want  you  to  have  any 
excuse  to  touch  whisky  again,  and  we  want  you  to 
live  on  us  for  the  next  three  months  as  a  personal 
favor.  After  that,  if  you  make  any  money,  I  s'pose 
the  Squire'll  be  glad  to  sell  you  anything  he  keeps 
in  his  store  ;  I  know  /  will,  if  I'm  in  business  then. 
But  you  mustn't  talk  about  paying  now,  'cause  it's 
all  nonsense.  Come  up  to  the  Squire's  store  when 
you  want  anything.  Good-by." 

Bunley  drew  himself  up  with  great  solemnity  and 
old-time  courtesy  as  he  shook  hands  with  both  men. 
When  his  visitors  reached  the  friendly  angle  of  an 
old,  abandoned  barn,  both  turned  hastily,  gazed 
through  cracks  between  the  boards,  and  saw  the  old 
man  sitting  in  a  meditative  attitude,  with  his  lower 
jaw  in  both  his  hands. 

"  Don't  that  look  good?"  whispered  Crupp,  his 
face  all  animation. 

"  It  does  that,"  replied  the  Squire  ;  "  there's  no 
dodging  the  question  ;  it  does  look  good." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

A   COURSE   NEVER   SMOOTH. 

a  pleasant  August  evening,  at  that  particu- 
lar  portion  of  the  day  in  which  twilight  shades 
into  night,  Fred  Macdonald  left  his  father's  house 
and  walked  toward  the  opposite  portion  of  the  vil 
lage.  From  his  leisurely,  elastic  gait,  the  artistic 
effect  of  his  necktie,  the  pose  of  his  hat,  the  rose 
bud  in  his  button-hole,  and  the  graceful  carriage  of 
his  cane,  it  was  very  evident  that  Frederick's  steps 
did  not  tend  toward  the  fulfillment  of  any  prosaic 
business  engagement.  It  was  not  so  dark  that  he 
could  not  recognize,  in  occasional  unlighted  windows, 
certain  faces  well  known,  some  of  them  handsome, 
all  of  them  pleasing  ;  nor  was  it  too  dark,  just  after 
Fred  had  bestowed  a  bow  and  a  smile  upon  the 
occupant  of  each  of  these  windows,  and  passed  on, 
for  one  to  discern,  by  the  expressions  upon  most  of 
the  faces  that  slowly  turned  and  looked  after  the 
young  man,  that  Fred  need  not  have  gone  farther  in 
search  of  a  cordial  welcome.  But  he  walked  on 


60  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

until  he  reached  the  residence  of  the  Rev.  Jonas 
Wedgewell.  To  any  one  not  a  resident  of  Barton 
the  house  might  have  seemed  a  strange  one  to  be 
visited  by  a  young  man  fond  of  liquor  and  the  com 
pany  frequently  found  on  Western  steamboats  ;  and 
the  stranger's  surprise  might  have  increased,  at  find 
ing  that  Fred  had  been  so  frequent  a  visitor  that 
even  the  house  itself  seemed  glad  to  see  him,  and 
that  the  heavy  old  door  seemingly  opened  of  its 
own  accord,  before  Fred's  fingers  had  time  to  touch 
its  antique  knocker.  But  had  the  supposititious 
observer  possessed  good  eyes,  whose  actual  powers 
were  temporarily  increased  by  the  stimulus  of  curi 
osity,  his  bewilderment  would  have  ended  a  second 
later  ;  for,  as  Fred  stepped  inside  the  hall,  there  came 
from  behind  the  door  a  small  hand,  and  then  a 
dainty  ruffle,  and  then  a  muslin  sleeve,  and  these  all 
took  their  direction  toward  the  shoulder  of  Fred's 
coat  ;  while  there  followed  a  profile  which  the  be 
holder  would  have  willingly  gazed  upon  longer,  had 
it  not  almost  instantaneously  disappeared  behind 
that  side  of  Fred's  face  which  was  farthest  from  the 
door. 

Could   the   observer's  gaze  have  penetrated  the 
window  shades  of  Parson  Wedgewell's  little  parlor, 


A  COURSE  NEVER  SMOOTH.         6l 

he  would  have  seen  a  face,  not  girlish  or  of  regular 
features,  and  yet  so  full  of  happiness  that  its  effect 
was  that  of  absolute  beauty  and  the  innocence  of 
youth.  There  were  estimable  maidens  in  Barton 
who,  scorning  the  thought  that  they  could  be  either 
jealous  or  envious,  had  frequently  remarked  to  their 
intimates  that  they  could  not  see  what  men  found 
in  Esther  Wedgewell  to  rave  about,  and  it  was  well 
known  that  the  mystery  had  never  been  satisfacto 
rily  explained  to  such  young  ladies  as  had  become 
the  wives  of  men  who  had  been  among  Miss  Es 
ther's  admirers.  It  is  even  to  be  doubted  whether 
Fred  Macdonald  himself  could  have  verbally  eluci 
dated  the  matter  ;  there  have  been  such  cases  where 
long  and  joyous  lifetimes  have  not  sufficed  in  which 
to  frame  such  an  explanation,  and  when  the  person 
most  blessed  has  had  to  journey  into  another  world 
in  search  of  adequate  power  of  expression.  Ordi 
narily  Esther  Wedgewell  was  a  young  lady  the 
pleasantness  of  whose  face  did  not  hide  the  fact 
that  its  owner's  forehead  was  too  high,  the  nose  too 
short,  the  mouth  too  large,  and  the  complexion  too 
pale  for  perfect  beauty.  But  somehow  young  men 
noticed  first  of  all  Miss  Esther's  eyes,  and  these, 
though  neither  of  heavenly  blue,  nor  violet,  nor  the 


62  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

brownness  of  nuts,  nor  large,  nor  melting,  but  only 
plain  gray,  were  so  honest  in  themselves,  and  so 
sympathetic  for  others,  that  no  one  of  any  charac 
ter  cared  to  gaze  from  them  to  any  other  of  the 
young  woman's  features. 

What  Fred  and  Esther  said  to  each  other  during 
the  first  few  minutes  after  their  meeting,  was  of  a 
nature  which  never  shows  to  full  advantage  in  print ; 
besides,  it  was  in  the  nature  of  things  that  they 
should  say  very  little.  In  spite  of  the  experience 
accumulated  during  a  hundred  or  more  of  just  such 
meetings,  it  seemed  necessary  that  a  few  minutes 
should  be  consumed  by  Fred  in  assuring  himself 
that  it  was  really  Esther  who  sat  in  the  rocking- 
chair  in  front  of  him  ;  and  the  same  time  was  used 
by  the  lady  in  determining  that  the  handsome,  in 
telligent  face  in  front  of  her  was  that  of  the  only 
lover  she  had  ever  accepted.  Gradually,  however, 
the  sentences  spoken  by  the  couple  became  longer 
and  more  frequent  ;  their  subjects  were  ordinary 
enough  ;  being  the  mutual  acquaintances  they  had 
met  during  the  day;  the  additions  which  had  been 
made  to  the  embroidery  on  the  pair  of  slippers 
which  Esther,  after  the  manner  of  most  other  be 
trothed  maidens  in  America,  had  begun  to  make  for 


A  COURSE  NEVER  SMOOTH.         63 

her  lover  ;  the  quality  of  the  singing  in  church  on 
the  preceding  Sunday ;  the  latest  news  from  Cap 
tain  Hall's  expedition  to  the  North  Pole  ;  the  char 
acter  of  Shakespeare's  Portia ;  and  yet  one  would 
have  supposed,  from  the  countenances  of  both  of 
these  young  people,  that  in  each  of  these  topics 
there  was  some  underlying  motive  of  the  most  de 
lightful  import ;  while  their  remarks  seemed  to  indi 
cate  that  there  was  but  one  side  to  either  of  the  sub 
jects  discussed,  and  that  both  Fred  and  Esther  saw 
it  with  the  extreme  clearness  of  earthly  compre 
hension. 

Then,  in  a  lull  in  the  conversation,  Fred  asked, 
with  a  courtesy  and  minuteness  inherited  from  aris 
tocratic  parents,  about  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wedgewell, 
and  elicited  the  information  that  Esther's  father 
was  composing  a  second  sermon  on  intemper 
ance. 

"  Your  father  undoubtedly  is  himself  the  best 
judge  of  the  needs  of  his  congregation,"  said  Fred, 
dropping  his  eyes  a  little  and  playing  with  a  bit  of 
paper  ;  "  but  I  can't  help  feeling  that  he  is  wasting 
bis  fine  talents  in  preaching  on  intemperance.  If 
his  sermons  could  be  heard  and  applied  by  the  pro 
per  persons,  they  might  do  a  great  deal  of  good  ;  but 


64  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

what  drunkard  goes  to  church  ?  Only  moderate 
drinkers  and  people  who  don't  drink  at  all  ever 
hear  your  father's  sermons,  and  none  of  them  have 
any  need  for  such  instructions." 

Esther  brushed  an  imaginary  thread  or  mote  from 
her  dress,  and  said,  with  some  embarrassment, 

"  Father  believes  that  the  moderate  drinkers  are 
those  who  most  need  to  be  warned." 

"  Why,  Ettie  !  "  exclaimed  Fred,  "  how  can  he 
believe  that?  He  must  know  that  I  occasionally — 
that  is,  he  knows  that  I  am  not  one  of  the  Sons  of 
Temperance  ;  yet  he  gave  me  you  " — here  conver 
sation  ceased  a  moment  as  Fred  stepped  toward 
Esther,  conveying  unto  that  lady  an  affectionate  tes 
timonial  whose  exact  nature  will  be  understood — 
"  and  he  certainly  would  not  have  done  so  had  he 
supposed  I  was  in  any  danger  of  being  injured  by 
liquor." 

Esther  did  not  wait  even  until  she  had  finished 
rearranging  a  disordered  tress  or  two  to  reply. 

"  He  said 'yes,'  only  after  I  told  him  of  your 
promise  to  me  that  you  would  not  drink  any  more 
after  we  were  married.  He  said  you  were  the  best 
born  and  best  bred  young  man  he  had  ever  met — as  if 
I  didn't  already  know  it,  you  dear  boy — but  that  he 


A  COURSE  NEVER  SMOOTH.         65 

would  rather  bury  me  than  let  me  marry  a  drinking 
man." 

During  the  delivery  of  this  short  speech  Fred 
looked  by  turns  astonished,  sober,  flattered,  sullen, 
indignant,  and  finally  business-like  and  judicial. 
Then  he  said  : 

"  Darling,  you  must  let  me  believe  that  your  father 
is  not  fully  posted  about  men  who  take  an  occasional 
glass.  It's  no  fault  of  his ;  he  probably  never  tasted 
a  drop  of  liquor  in  his  life — he  may  never  have  felt 
the  need  of  it.  But  believe  me  when  I  tell  you  that 
many  of  the  smartest  men  drink  sometimes,  and  are 
greatly  helped  by  it.  A  business  man  whose  daily 
life  can't  help  being  often  irregular,  sometimes  finds 
he  can't  get  along  without  something  to  help  him 
through  the  day.  Why,  a  few  days  ago  I  helped 
Sam  Crayme,  captain  of  the  "  Excellence,"  you 
know,  at  a  difficult  bit  of  business  ;  I  worked  thirty- 
six  hours  on  a  stretch,  and  made  fifty  dollars  by  it. 
That's  more  money  than  any  of  your  young  temper 
ance  men  of  Barton  ever  make  in  a  month,  but  I 
never  could  have  done  it  if  it  hadn't  been  for  an 
occasional  drink." 

"  But,"  said  Esther,  "you  know  I  don't  say  it  by 
way  of  complaint,  Fred  dear,  but  for  a  week  after 


66  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

that  you  felt  dull  and  didn't  say  much,  and  didn't 
care  to  read,  and  one  evening  when  I  expected  you 
you  didn't  come." 

"  But  think  how  tired  a  man  must  be  after  such  a 
job,  Ettie,"  pleaded  Fred  in  an  injured  tone. 

"  You  poor  old  fellow,  I  know  it,"  said  Esther  ; 
"  but  you  wouldn't  have  been  so  if  you  hadn't  done 
the  work,  and  you  yourself  say  you  couldn't  have 
done  the  work  if  you  hadn't  drunk  the  liquor,  and 
you  know  you  didn't  need  the  money  so  badly  as  to 
have  had  to  do  so  much.  Any  merchant  in  the 
town  would  be  glad  to  give  you  employment  at 
which  you  would  be  your  own  natural  self." 

"  And  I  would  always  be  a  poor  man  if  I  worked 
for  our  plodding,  small-paying  merchants,"  said 
Fred.  "  Why,  Ettie,  who  own  the  handsomest 
houses  in  town,  who  have  the  best  horses,  who 
set  the  best  tables,  whose  wives  and  children  wear 
the  best  clothes?  Why,  Moshier  and  Brown  and 
Crayme  and  Wainwright,  every  one  of  them  mod 
erate  drinkers ;  I  never  in  my  life  saw  one  of  them 
drunk." 

"  And  I  would  rather  be  dead  than  be  the  wife  of 
any  one  of  them,"  said  Esther  with  an  energy 
which  startled  Fred.  "  Mrs.  Moshier  used  to  be 


A  COURSE  NEVER  SMOOTH.         67 

such  a  happy-looking  woman,  and  now  she  is  so 
quiet  and  has  such  sad  eyes.  Brown  seems  to 
spend  no  end  of  money  on  his  family  ;  but  his  chil 
dren  are  always  put  to  bed  before  he  comes  home, 
because  he  is  as  likely  as  not  to  be  cross  and  unkind 
to  them  ;  when  they  meet  him  on  the  street  they 
never  shout  'Papa!'  and  rush  up  to  him  as  your 
little  brothers  and  sisters  do  to  your  father;  but  they 
look  at  him  first  with  an  anxious  look  that's  enough 
to  break  one's  heart,  and  as  likely  as  not  cross  the 
street  to  avoid  meeting  him.  Mrs.  Crayme  was 
having  suck  a  pleasant  time  at  Nellie  Wainwright's 
party  the  other  night,  when  her  husband,  who  she 
seldom  enough  has  a  chance  to  take  into  society 
with  her,  said  such  silly  things  and  stared  around 
with  such  an  odd  look  in  his  eye  that  she  made 
some  excuse  to  take  him  home.  And  Nellie  Wain- 
wright — she  was  my  particular  friend  before  she  was 
married,  you  know — was  here  a  few  days  ago,  and  I 
was  telling  her  how  happy  I  was,  when  suddenly  she 
threw  both  arms  around  my  neck  and  burst  out  cry 
ing,  and  told  me  that  she  hoped  that  my  husband 
would  never  drink  after  I  was  married.  She  insists 
upon  it  that  her  husband  is  the  best  man  that  ever 
lived,  and  that  if  she  only  mentions  anything  she 


68  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

would  like,  she  has  it  at  once  if  money  can  buy  it, 
and  yet  she  is  unhappy.  She  says  there's  always  a 
load  on  her  heart,  and  though  she  feels  real  wicked 
about  it,  she  can't  get  rid  of  it." 

Fred  Macdonald  was  unable  for  some  moments  to 
reply  to  this  unexpected  speech  ;  he  arose  from  his 
chair,  and  walked  slowly  up  and  down  the  room, 
with  his  hands  behind  him,  and  with  the  counte 
nance  natural  to  a  man  who  has  heard  something  of 
which  he  had  previously  possessed  no  idea.  Esther 
looked  at  him,  first  furtively,  then  tenderly  ;  then 
she  sprang  to  his  side  and  leaned  upon  his  shoulder, 
saying, 

•'  Dear  Fred,  I  know  you  could  never  be  that  way ; 
but  then  all  these  women  were  sure  they  knew 
just  the  same  about  their  lovers,  before  they  were 
married." 

"  Well,  Ettie,"  said  Fred,  passing  an  arm  about 
the  young  lady,  "  I  really  don't  know  what's  to  be 
done  about  it,  if  drinking  moderately  is  the  cause 
of  all  these  dreadful  things ;  I'm  bound  to  be  some 
body ;  I'm  in  the  set  of  men  that  make  money; 
they  like  me,  and  I  understand  them.  But  they  all 
take  something,  and  you  don't  know  how  they  look 
at  a  man  who  refuses  to  drink  with  them  ;  all  ofthem 


A  COURSE  NEVER  SMOOTH.         69 

think  he  don't  amount  to  much,  and  some  of  them 
actually  feel  insulted.  What  is  a  fellow  to  do?" 

"  Go  into  some  other  set,  I  suppose,"  said  Esther 
very  soberly. 

"  You  don't  know  what  you're  saying,  my  dear 
girl,"  said  Fred.  "  What  else  is  there  for  a  man  to 
do  in  a  dead-and-alive  place  like  Barton  ?  you  don't 
want  to  be  the  wife  of  a  four-hundred-dollar  clerk, 
and  live  in  part  of  a  common  little  house,  do  you  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Esther,  showing  her  lover  a  rapturous 
face  whose  attractiveness  was  not  marred  by  a  sus 
picion  of  shyness.  "  I  do,  if  Fred  Macdonald  is  to 
be  my  husband." 

"  Then  if  either  of  us  should  have  a  long  illness, 
or  if  I  should  lose  my  position,  we  would  have  to 
depend  on  your  parents  and  mine,"  said  Fred. 

"Let  us  wait,  then,"  said  Esther,  "  until  you  can 
have  saved  something,  before  we  are  married." 

"  And  be  like  Charley  Merrick  and  Kate  Arm 
strong,  who've  been  engaged  for  ten  years,  and  are 
growing  old  and  doleful  about  it." 

"  /'//  never  grow  old  and  doleful  while  waiting  for 
my  lover  to  succeed,"  said  Esther,  in  a  tone  which 
might  have  carried  conviction  with  it  had  Fred 
been  entirely  in  a  listening  humor.  But  as  Fred 


70  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

imagined  himself  in  the  position  of  the  many  un 
successful  young  men  in  Barton,  and  of  the  anx 
ious-looking  husbands  who  had  once  been  as 
spirited  as  himself,  he  fell  into  a  frame  of  mind 
which  was  anything  but  receptive.  In  his  day 
dreams  marriage  had  seemed  made  up  of  many 
things  beside  die  perpetual  companionship  of 
Esther :  it  had  among  its  very  desirable  compo 
nents  a  handsome,  well-furnished  house,  a  carriage 
of  the  most  approved  style,  an  elegant  wardrobe 
for  Esther,  and  one  of  faultless  style  for  himself,  a 
prominent  pew  in  church,  and,  not  least  of  all,  a 
sideboard  which  should  be  better  stocked  than  that 
of  any  of  his  friends.  To  banish  these  from  his 
mind  for  a  moment,  and  imagine  himself  living  in 
two  or  three  rooms  ;  cheapening  meat  at  the  butch 
er's  ;  never  driving  out  but  when  he  could  borrow 
somebody's  horse  and  antiquated  buggy  ;  wearing 
a  suit  of  clothes  for  two  or  three  years  in  suc 
cession,  while  Esther  should  spend  hours  in  making 
over  and  over  the  dresses  of  her  unmarried  days  ; 
all  this  made  him  almost  deaf  to  Esther's  loyal 
words,  and  nearly  oblivious  to  the  fact  that  the 
wisest  and  sweetest  girl  in  Barton  was  resting 
within  his  arm.  Suddenly  he  aroused  himself Trom 


A  COURSE  NEVER  SMOOTH.         /I 

his  revery,  and  exclaimed,  in  a  tone  which  Esther 
did  not  at  first  recognize  as  his  own, 

"  Ettie,  your  ideas  are  honest  and  lofty,  but  you 
must  admit  that  I  know  best  about  matters  of  busi 
ness.  I  can't  deliberately  throw  away  everything 
I  have  done,  and  form  entirely  different  business 
connections.  I've  always  regretted  my  promise  to 
stop  drinking  after  our  marriage ;  but  I've  trusted 
that  you,  with  your  unusual  sense,  would  see  the 
propriety  of  absolving  me  from  it." 

Esther  shrank  away  from  Fred,  and  hid  her  face 
in  her  hands,  whispering  hoarsely, 

"  I  can't,  I  can't,  and  I  never  will." 

She  dropped  into  a  chair  and  burst  into  tears. 
Fred's  momentary  expression  of  anger  softened 
into  sorrow,  but  his  business  instinct  did  not  desert 
him.  "  Ettie,"  said  he  tenderly,  "  I  thought  you 
trusted  me." 

"  You  know  I  do,  Fred,"  said  the  weeping  girl ; 
"  but  my  lover  and  the  Fred  who  drinks  are  two 
different  persons,  and  T  cant  trust  the  latter.  Don't 
think  me  selfish  :  be  always  your  natural  self,  and 
there's  no  poverty  or  sorrow  that  I  won't  endure  to 
be  always  with  you.  Do  you  think  I  hope  to  marry 
you  for  the  sake  of  living  in  luxury,  or  that  any 


?2  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

pleasures  that  money  will  buy  will  satisfy  me  any 
more  than  they  do  Nellie  Wainwright  and  Mr. 
Moshier's  wife?  Or  do  you,  professing  to  love  me, 
ask  me  to  run  even  the  slightest  risk  of  ever  being 
as  unhappy  as  the  poor  women  we  have  been 
talking  about  are  with  their  husbands,  who  love 
them  dearly?  You  must  keep  that  promise,  or  I 
must  love  you  apart  from  you — until  you  marry 
some  one  else !  Even  then  I  could  only  stop,  it 
seems  to  me,  by  stopping  to  live." 

Fred's  face,  while  Esther  was  speaking,  was  any 
thing  but  comely  to  look  upon,  but  his  intended 
reply  was  prevented  by  a  violent  knock  at  the 
door.  Esther  hurriedly  dried  her  eyes,  and  pre 
pared  to  vanish,  if  necessary,  while  Fred  regained 
in  haste  his  ordinary  countenance  ;  then,  as  the 
servant  opened  the  door,  the  lovers  heard  a  voice 
saying, 

"  Is  Fred  Macdonald  here  ?  He  must  come 
down  to  George  Doughty's  right  away.  George  is 
dying  ! " 

Fred  gave  Ettie  a  hasty  kiss  and  a  conciliatory 
caress,  after  which  he  left  the  house  at  a  lively 
run. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SOME  NATURAL  RESULTS. 

EORGE  DOUGHTY  lay  propped  up  in  bed ; 
standing  beside  him,  and  clasping  his  hand 
tightly,  was  his  wife ;  near  him  were  his  two  oldest 
children,  seemingly  as  ignorant  of  what  was  transpir 
ing  as  they  were  uncomfortable  on  account  of  the 
peculiar  influence  which  pervaded  the  room.  On  the 
other  side  of  the  bed,  and  holding  one  of  the  dying 
man's  hands,  knelt  Parson  Wedge  well;  beside  him 
stood  the  doctor;  while  behind  them  both,  near  the 
door,  and  as  nearly  invisible  as  a  man  of  his  size  could 
be,  was  Squire  Tomple.  The  Squire's  face  and  figure 
seemed  embodiments  of  a  trembling,  abject  apology ; 
he  occasionally  looked  toward  the  door,  as  if  to 
question  that  inanimate  object  whether  behind  its 
broad  front  he,  the  Squire,  might  not  be  safe  from 
his  own  fears.  It  was  very  evident  that  the  Squire's 
conscience  was  making  a  coward  of  him ;  but  it  was 
also  evident,  and  not  for  the  first  time  in  the  world's 
history,  that  cowardice  is  mightily  influential  in 

4 


74  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

holding  a  coward  to  the  ground  that  he  hates.  Had 
any  one  spoken  to  him,  or  paid  him  the  slightest  at 
tention,  the  Squire  would  have  felt  better ;  nothing 
turns  cowards  into  soldiers  so  quickly  as  the  receipt 
of  a  volley;  but  no  such  relief  seemed  at  all  likely 
to  reach  him.  The  doctor,  like  a  true  man,  having 
done  all  things,  could  only  stand,  and  stand  he  did ; 
Parson  Wedgewell,  feeling  that  upon  his  own  efforts 
with  the  Great  Physician  depended  the  sick  man's 
future  well-being,  prayed  silently  and  earnestly,  rais 
ing  his  head  only  to  search,  through  his  tears,  the 
face  of  the  patient  for  signs  of  the  desired  answer 
to  prayer.  Mrs.  Doughty  was  interested  only  in 
looking  into  the  eyes  too  soon  to  close  forever,  and 
the  faces  of  the  two  children  were  more  than  a  man 
could  intentionally  look  upon  a  second  time.  So 
when  Doughty's  baby,  who  had  been  creeping  about 
the  floor,  suddenly  beholding  the  glories  of  the  great 
seal  which  depended  from  the  Squire's  fob-chain, 
tried  to  climb  the  leg  of  the  storekeeper's  trousers, 
the  Squire  smiled,  as  a  saint  in  extremity  might 
smile  at  the  sudden  appearance  of  an  angel,  and  he 
stooped — no  easy  operation  for  a  man  of  Squire 
Temple's  bulk — and,  lifting  the  little  fellow  in  his 
arms,  put  kisses  all  over  the  tiny  face,  which,  in  view 


SOME  NATURAL  RESULTS.  75 

of  the  relations  of  cleanliness  to  attractiveness,  was 
not  especially  bewitching.  A  moment  later,  how 
ever,  a  muffled  but  approaching  step  brought  back 
to  the  Squire  his  own  sense  of  propriety,  and  he 
dropped  the  baby  just  in  time  to  be  able  to  give  a 
hand  to  Fred  Macdonald,  as  that  young  man  softly 
pushed  open  the  door.  The  Squire's  face  again  be 
came  apologetic. 

"  How  did  it  happen?"  whispered  Fred. 

"  \Yhy,"  replied  the  Squire,  "  the  doctor  says  it's 
a  galloping  consumption  ;  /  never  knew  a  thing 
about  it.  Doctor  says  it's  the  quickest  case  he  ever 
knew ;  he  never  imagined  anything  was  the  matter 
with  George.  If  /d  known  anything  about  it,  I'd 
have  had  the  doctor  attending  him  long  ago  ;  but 
George  isn't  of  the  complaining  kind.  The  idea  of  a 
fellow  being  at  work  for  me,  and  dying  right  straight 
along.  Why,  it's  awful !  He  says  he  never  knew 
anything  about  it  himself,  so  I  don't  see  how  /could 
He  was  at  the  store  up  to  four  or  five  days  ago 
then  his  wife  came  around  one  morning  and  told  me 
that  he  didn't  feel  fit  to  work  that  day,  but  she  didn't 
say  what  the  matter  was.  I've  been  thinking,  for 
two  or  three  weeks,  about  giving  him  some  help  in 
the  store  ;  but  you  know  how  business  drives  every- 


76  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

thing  out  of  a  man's  head.  First  I  thought  I'd  stay 
around  the  store  myself  evenings,  and  let  George 
rest  ;  but  I've  had  to  go  to  lodge  meetings  and 
prayer  meetings,  and  my  wife's  wanted  me  to  go 
out  with  her,  and  so  my  time's  been  taken  up.  Then 
I  thought  I'd  get  a  boy,  and — well,  I  didn't  know 
exactly  which  to  do ;  but  if  I'd  known " 

"  But  can't  something  be  done  to  brace  him  up 
for  a  day  or  two?"  interrupted  Fred;  "  then  I'll 
take  him  out  driving  every  day,  and  perhaps  he'll 
pick  up." 

The  Squire  looked  twenty  years  older  for  a 
moment  or  two  as  he  replied, 

"  The  doctor  says  he  hasn't  any  physique  to 
rally  upon  ;  he's  all  gone,  muscle,  blood,  and  every 
thing.  It's  the  queerest  thing  I  ever  knew  ;  he 
hasn't  had  anything  to  do,  these  past  few  years,  but 
just  what  /  did  when  I  was  a  young  man." 

The  dying  man  turned  his  eyes  inquiringly,  and 
asked  in  a  very  thin  voice, 

"  Isn't  Fred  here  ?  " 

Fred  started  from  the  Squire's  side,  but  the  store 
keeper  arrested  his  progress  with  both  hands,  and 
fixing  his  eyes  on  Fred's  necktie,  whispered, 

"  You  don't  think  Fm  to  blame,  do  you  T* 


SOME   NATURAL   RESULTS.  77 

"  Why — no — I  don't  see  how,  exactly,"  said  Fred, 
endeavoring  to  escape. 

"  Fred,"  whispered  the  Squire,  tightening  his 
hold  on  the  lapels  of  Fred's  coat,  "  tell  him  so, 
\\on't  you  ?  I'll  be  your  best  friend  forever  if  you 
will ;  it's  dreadful  to  think  of  a  man  going  up  to 
God  with  such  an  idea  on  his  mind,  even  if  it  is  a 
mistake.  Of  course,  when  he  gets  there  he'll  find 
out  he's  wrong,  z/he  is,  as— 

Fred  broke  away  from  the  storekeeper,  and 
wedged  himself  between  the  doctor  and  pastor. 
Doughty  withdrew  his  wrist  from  the  doctor's  fin 
gers,  extended  a  thin  hand,  and  smiled. 

"  Fred,"  said  he,  "  we  used  to  be  chums  when  we 
were  boys.  I  never  took  an  advantage  of  you, 
did  I?" 

"  Never,"  said  Fred  ;  "  and  we'll  have  lots  of  good 
times  again,  old  fellow.  I've  just  bought  the  best 
spring  wagon  in  the  State,  and  I'll  drive  you  all 
over  the  country  when  you  get  well  enough." 

George's  smile  became  slightly  grim  as  he  replied, 

"  I  guess  Barker's  hearse  is  the  only  spring  wagon 
I'll  ever  ride  in  again,  my  boy." 

"  Nonsense,  George  !  "  exclaimed  Fred  heartily. 
"  How  many  times  have  I  seen  you  almost  dead, 


78  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

and  then  put  yourself  together  again  ?  Don't  you 
remember  the  time  when  you  gave  out  in  the  mid 
dle  of  the  river,  and  then  picked  yourself  up,  and 
swam  the  rest  of  the  way  ?  Don't  you  remember 
the  time  we  got  snowed  in  on  Raccoon  Mountain, 
and  we  both  gave  up  and  got  ready  to  die,  and  how 
you  not  only  came  to,  but  dragged  me  home  besides? 
The  idea  of  you  ever  dying  !  I  wish  you'd  sent  for 
me  when  you  first  took  the  silly  notion  into  your 
head." 

Doughty  was  silent  for  a  moment ;  his  eyes 
brightened  a  little  and  a  faint  flush  came  to  his 
cheeks ;  he  looked  fondly  at  his  wife,  and  then  at 
his  children  ;  he  tried  to  raise  himself  in  his  bed  ; 
but  in  a  minute  his  smile  departed,  his  pallor 
returned,  and  he  said,  in  the  thinnest  of  voices, 

"  It's  no  use,  Fred  ;  in  those  days  there  was  some 
thing  in  me  to  call  upon  at  a  pinch  ;  now  there 
isn't  a  thing.  I  haven't  any  time  to  spare,  Fred  ; 
what  I  want  to  ask  is,  keep  an  eye  on  my  boys,  for 
old  acquaintance'  sake.  Their  mother  will  be  almost 
everything  to  them,  but  she  can't  be  expected  to 
know  about  their  ways  among  men.  I  want  some 
body  to  care  enough  for  them  to  see  that  they  don't 
make  the  mistakes  I've  made." 


SOME   NATURAL  RESULTS.  79 

A  sudden  rustle  and  a  heavy  step  was  heard,  and 
Squire  Tomple  approached  the  bedside,  exclaim 
ing, 

••/V/dothat!" 

"  Thank  you,  Squire,"  said  George  feebly  ;  "  but 
you're  not  the  right  man  to  do  it." 

"  George,"  said  the  Squire,  raising  his  voice,  and 
unconsciously  raising  his  hand,  "  I'll  give  them 
the  best  business  chances  that  can  be  had ;  I  can  do 
it,  for  I'm  the  richest  man  in  this  town." 

"  You  gave  me  the  best  chance  in  town,  Squire, 
and  this  is  what  has  come  of  it,"  said  Doughty. 

The  Squire  precipitately  fell  back  and  against  his 
old  place  by  the  wall.  Doughty  continued, 

"  Fred,  persuade  them — tell  them  that  I  said  so — 
that  a  business  that  makes  them  drink  to  keep  up, 
isn't  business  at  all — it's  suicide.  Tell  them  that 
their  father,  who  was  never  drunk  in  his  life,  got 
whisky  to  help  him  use  more  of  himself,  until  there 
wasn't  anything  left  to  use.  Tell  them  that  drink 
ing  for  strength  means  discounting  the  future,  and 
that  discounting  the  future  always  means  getting 
ready  for  bankruptcy." 

"  I'll  do  it,  old  fellow,"  said  Fred,  who  had  been 
growing  very  solemn  of  visage. 


8O  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

"  They  shan't  ask  you  for  any  money,  Fred/  ex 
plained  Doughty,  when  the  Squire's  voice  was  again 
heard  saying, 

"  And  they  shan't  refuse  it  from  me." 

"  Thank  you,  Squire,"  said  George.  "  I  do  think 
you  owe  it  to  them,  but  I  guess  they've  good  enough 
stuff  in  them  to  refuse  it." 

"  George,"  said  the  Squire,  again  approaching 
the  bedside,  "  I'm  going  to  continue  your  salary  to 
your  wife  until  your  boys  grow  big  enough  to  help 
her.  You  know  I've  got  plenty  of  money — 'twon't 
hurt  me ;  for  God's  sake  make  her  promise  to 
take  it." 

"  She  won't  need  it,"  said  Doughty.  "  My  life's 
insured." 

"  Then  what  can  I  do  for  her — for  them — for 
you?"  asked  the  Squire.  "  George,  you're  holding 
your — sickness — against  me,  and  I  want  to  make  it 
right.  I  can't  say  I  believe  I've  done  wrong  by 
you,  but  you  think  I  have,  and  that's  enough  to 
make  me  want  to  restore  good  feeling  between  us 
before — in  case  anything  should  happen.  Anything 
that  money  can  do,  it  shall  do." 

"  Offer  it  to  God  Almighty,  Squire,  and  buy  my 
life  back  again,"  said  Doughty.  "  If  you  can't  do 


SOME   NATURAL  RESULTS.  Si 

that,   your  money  isn't  good  for  anything  in  this 
house." 

The  doctor  whispered  to  his  patient  that  he  must 
not  exert  himself  so  much;  the  Squire  whispered  to 
the  doctor  to  know  what  else  a  man  in  his  own 
position  could  do  ? 

Fred  Macdonald  could  think  of  no  appropriate 
expression  with  which  to  break  the  silence  that 
threatened.  Suddenly  Parson  Wedgewell  raised  his 
head,  and  said, 

"  My  dear  young  friend,  this  is  a  solemn  moment. 
There  are  others  who  know  and  esteem  you,  beside 
those  here  present ;  have  you  no  message  to  leave 
for  them?  Thousands  of  people  rightly  regard  you 
as  a  young  man  of  high  character,  and  your  in 
fluence  for  good  may  be  powerful  among  them. 
I  should  esteem  it  an  especial  privilege  to  announce, 
in  my  official  capacity,  such  testimony  as  you  may 
be  moved  to  make,  and  as  your  pastor,  I  feel  like 
claiming  this  mournful  pleasure  as  a  right.  What 
may  I  say  ?  " 

"  Say,"  replied  the  sick  man,  with  an  earnestness 

which  was  almost  terrible  in  its  intensity;  "  say  that 

whisky  was  the  best  business  friend  I  ever  found, 

and  that  when  it  began  to  abuse  me,  no  one  thought 

4* 


82  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

enough  of  me  to  step  in  between  us.     And  tell  them 
that  this  story  is  as  true  as  it  is  ugly." 

As  Doughty  spoke,  he  had  raised  himself  upon 
one  elbow ;  as  he  uttered  his  last  word,  he  dropped 
upon  his  pillow,  and  passed  into  a  land  to  which  no 
one  but  his  wife  manifested  any  willingness  to  fol 
low  him. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

AN   ESTIMABLE   ORGANIZATION  CRITICISED. 


HT^HE  funeral  services  of  George  Doughty  were 
-*-  as  largely  attended  as  the  great  temperance 
meeting  had  been,  and  the  attendants  admitted  — 
although  the  admission  was  not,  logically,  of  partic 
ular  force  —  that  they  received  the  worth  of  their 
money.  The  pall-bearers,  twelve  in  number,  were 
all  young  men  who  had  been  in  the  habit  of  drink 
ing,  but  who  had  signed  the  pledge,  some  of  them 
having  appended  signatures  to  special  pledges  pri 
vately  prepared  on  the  evening  before  the  service. 
The  funeral  anthem  was  as  doleful  as  the  most  sin 
cere  mourner  could  have  wished,  the  music  having 
been  composed  especially  for  the  occasion  by  the 
chorister  of  Mr.  Wedgewell's  church.  As  for  the 
sermon,  it  was  universally  voted  the  most  power 
ful  effort  that  Parson  Wedgewell  had  ever  made. 
Day  and  night  had  the  good  man  striven  with 
Doughty's  parting  injunction,  determined  to  trans 
mit  the  exact  spirit  of  it,  but  horrified  at  its  verbal 


84  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

form.  At  last  he  honestly  made  George's  own  words 
the  basis  of  his  whole  sermon  ;  his  method  being, 
first,  to  show  what  would  have  been  naturally  the 
last  words  of  a  young  man  of  good  birth  and  Chris 
tian  breeding,  and  then  presenting  George's  moral 
legacy  by  way  of  contrast.  To  point  the  moral 
without  offending  Squire  Temple's  pride,  and  with 
out  inflicting  useless  pain  upon  the  Squire's  suffi 
ciently  wounded  heart,  was  no  easy  task ;  but  the 
parson  was  not  lacking  in  tact  and  tenderness,  so  he 
succeeded  in  making  of  his  sermon  an  appeal  so 
powerful  and  all-applicable  that  none  of  the  hear 
ers  found  themselves  at  liberty  to  search  out  those 
to  whom  the  sermon  might  seem  personally  ad 
dressed. 

Among  the  hearers  was  Mr.  Crupp,  and  no  one 
seemed  more  deeply  interested  and  affected.  He 
followed  the  funeral  cortege  to  the  cemetery  ;  but, 
arrived  there,  he  halted  at  the  gate,  instead  of  fol 
lowing  the  example  of  the  multitude  by  crowding 
as  closely  as  possible  to  the  grave.  The  final  ser 
vices  were  no  sooner  concluded,  however,  than  the 
object  of  Mr.  Crupp's  unusual  conduct  became  ap 
parent  to  one  person  after  another,  the  disclosure 
being  made  to  people  in  the  order  of  their  "earthly 


ESTIMABLE   ORGANIZATION   CRITICISED.         8$ 

possessions.  The  parson  was  shocked  at  learning 
that  Mr.  Crupp  was  importuning  every  man  of 
means  to  take  stock  in  a  woolen  mill,  to  be  estab 
lished  at  Barton  ;  but  a  whispered  word  or  two  from 
Crupp  caused  the  parson  to  abate  his  displeasure, 
and  finally  to  stand  near  Crupp's  side  and  express 
his  own  hearty  approbation  of  the  enterprise  pro 
posed.  Then  Mr.  Crupp  whispered  a  few  words 
to  Squire  Tomple,  and  the  Squire  subscribed  a 
hundred  shares  at  ten  dollars  each,  information 
of  which  act  was  disseminated  among  business 
men  and  well-to-do  farmers  by  Parson  Wedge- 
well  with  an  alacrity  which,  had  modern  busi 
ness  ideas  prevailed  at  Barton,  would  have  laid 
the  parson  open  to  a  suspicion  of  having  ac 
cepted  a  few  shares,  to  be  paid  for  by  his 
own  influence.  Then  Deacon  Jones  subscribed 
twenty  shares,  and  Judge  Macdonald,  Fred's  father, 
promised  to  take  fifty  ;  Crupp's  name  already  stood 
at  the  head  of  the  list  for  a  hundred.  No  stock- 
company  had  ever  been  organized  at  Barton  before, 
and  the  citizens  had  always  manifested  a  laudable 
reluctance  to  allow  other  people  to  handle  their 
money;  but  this  case  seemed  an  exception  to  all 
others ;  confidence  in  the  enterprise  was  so  power- 


86  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

fully  expressed,  alike  by  the  mercantile  community, 
the  bar,  the  church,  and  the  unregenerate  (the  last- 
named  class  being  represented  by  the  ex-vender  of 
liquors),  that  people  who  had  any  money  made 
haste  to  participate  in  what  seemed  to  them  a  race 
for  wealth  with  the  odds  in  everybody's  favor. 
Crupp  neglected  no  one  ;  he  scorned  no  subscrip 
tion  on  account  of  its  smallness ;  before  he  left  the 
cemetery  gate  nearly  half  the  requisite  capital  had 
been  pledged,  and  before  he  slept  that  night  he 
found.it  necessary  to  accept  rather  more  than  the 
twenty  thousand  dollars  which,  it  had  been  decided 
two  days  before,  would  be  needed.  Several  days 
later  a  board  of  directors  was  elected  ;  two  or  three 
of  the  directors  informally  offered  the  superinten- 
dency  of  the  mill  to  Fred  Macdonald,  on  condition 
that  he  would  pledge  himself  to  abstain  from  the 
use  of  intoxicating  beverage  while  he  held  the 
position,  and  then  Fred  was  elected  superintendent 
in  regular  form  and  by  unanimous  vote  of  the  board 
of  directors. 

Great  was  the  excitement  in  Barton  and  the 
tributary  country  when  it  was  announced  that  the 
mill  needed  no  more  money,  and  that,  consequently, 
no  more  stock  would  be  issued.  In  that«rnyste- 


ESTIMABLE   ORGANIZATION   CRITICISED.        S/ 

rious  way  in  which  such  things  always  happen, 
the  secret  escaped,  and  encountered  every  one, 
that  his  new  position  would  prevent  Fred  Mac- 
donald  from  drinking ;  non-stockholders  had  then 
the  additional  grievance  that  they  had  been  de 
prived  of  taking  any  part  in  an  enterprise  for  the 
good  of  a  fellow-man,  and  all  because  the  rich  men 
of  the  village  saw  money  in  it.  None  of  these 
injured  ones  dared  to  express  their  minds  on  this 
subject  to  Squire  Tomple,  to  whom  so  many  of 
them  owed  money,  or  to  Judge  Macdonald,  who,  in 
his  family  pride,  would  have  laid  himself  liable  to 
action  by  the  grand  jury,  had  any  one  suggested 
that  his  oldest  son  had  ever  been  in  any  danger  of 
becoming  a  drunkard.  But  to  Mr.  Crupp  they  did 
not  hesitate  to  speak  freely ;  Crupp  owned  no 
mortgages,  no  total  abstainers  owed  him  money ; 
besides,  he  not  only  was  not  a  .church  member, 
but  he  had  been  in  that  most  infernal  of  all  callings, 
rum-selling.  So  it  came  to  pass  that  when  one  clay 
Crupp  went  into  Deacon  Jones's  store  for  a  dollar's 
worth  of  sugar,  and  was  awaiting  his  turn  among  a 
large  crowd  of  customers,  Father  Baguss  consti 
tuted  himself  spokesman  for  the  aggrieved  faction, 
and  said, 


88  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

"  It  'pears  to  me,  Mr.  Crupp,  as  if  reformin'  was 
a  payin'  business." 

Crupp  being  human,  was  not  saintly,  so  he  flushed 
angrily,  and  replied, 

"  It  ought  to  be,  if  the  religion  you  re  so  fond  of 
is  worth  a  row  of  pins ;  but  I  don't  know  what 
you're  driving  at." 

"  Oh  !  of  course  you  don't  know,"  said  Father 
Baguss ;  "  but  everybody  else  does.  You  don't 
expect  to  make  any  money  out  of  that  woolen 
mill,  do  you?" 

"Yes  I  do,  too,"  answered  Crupp  quickly.  "  I'll 
make  every  cent  I  can  out  of  it." 

"Just  so,"  said  Father  Baguss,  consoling  himself 
with  a  bite  of  tobacco  ;  "  an'  them  that's  borne  the 
burden  and  heat  of  the  day  can  plod  along  and  not 
make  a  cent  'xcept  by  the  hardest  knocks.  I've 
been  one  of  the  Sons  of  Temperance  ever  since  I 
was  converted,  an'  that's  nigh  onto  forty  year  ;  I 
don't  see  why  I  don't  get  my  sheer  of  the  good 
things  of  this  world." 

"  If  you  mean,"  said  Crupp,  with  incomparable 
deliberation,  "  that  my  taking  stock  in  the  mill  is  a 
reward  to  me  for  dropping  the  liquor  business, 
you're  mightily  mistaken.  I'd  have  taken  jt  all  the 


ESTIMABLE   ORGANIZATION   CRITICISED.         89 

same  if  anybody  had  put  me  up  to  it  when  I  was  in 
the  liquor  business." 

"Yes,"  sighed  Father  Baguss,  'Mike  enough  you 
would;  as  the  Bible  says,  'The  children  of  this 
world  are  wiser  in  their  generation  than  the  chil 
dren  of  light.'  I  can't  help  a-gettin'  mad,  though, 
to  think  it  has  to  be  so." 

Two  or  three  unsuccessful  farmers  lounging  about 
the  stove  sighed  sympathetically,  but  Crupp  in 
dulged  in  a  sarcastic  smile,  and  remarked, 

"  /  always  supposed  it  was  because  the  children 
of  light  had  got  their  treasure  laid  up  in  heaven, 
and  were  above  such  worldly  notions." 

The  late  sympathizers  of  Father  Baguss  saw  the 
joke,  and  laughed  with  unkind  energy,  upon  which 
the  good  old  man  straightened  himself  and  ex 
claimed, 

"  The  children  of  the  kingdom  have  to  earn  their 
daily  bread,  I  reckon  ;  manna  don't  fall  nowadays 
like  it  used  to  do  for  the  chosen  people." 

"  Exactly,"  said  Crupp,  "  and  them  that  ain't 
chosen  people  don't  pick  up  their  dinners  without 
working  for  them  either,  without  getting  into  jail 
for  it.  But,  say!  I  didn't  come  in  here  to  make  fun 
of  you,  Father  Baguss.  If  you  want  some  of  that 


90  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

mill  stock  so  bad,  I'll  sell  you  some  of  mine — that  is, 
if  you'll  go  into  temperance  with  all  your  might." 

The  old  man  seemed  struck  dumb  for  a  moment 
but  when  he  found  his  tongue,  he  made  that  useful 
member  make  up  for  lost  time.  "  Go  into  temper 
ance  !"  he  shouted.  "Did  anybody  ever  hear  the 
like  of  that  ?  I  that's  been  a  "  Son  "  more'n  half 
my  life  ;  that's  spent  a  hundred  dollars — yes,  more 
— in  yearly  dues ;  that's  been  to  every  temperance 
meetin'  that's  ever  been  held  in  town,  even  when 
I've  had  rheumatiz  so  bad  I  could  hardly  crawl ; 
that  kept  the  pledge  even  when  I  was  out  in  the  Black 
Hawk  War,  where  the  doctors  themselves  said  that 
I  ort  to  have  drank ;  that's  plead  with  drinkers,  and 
been  scoffed  an'  reviled  like  my  blessed  Master  for 
my  pains;  that's  voted  for  the  Maine  Liquor  Law  ; 
that's  been  dead  agin  lettin'  Miles  Balling  into  the 
church  because  he  brews  beer  for  his  own  family 
drinkin',  though  he's  a  good  enough  man  every 
other  way,  as  fur  as  I  can  see ;  I  that  went  to  see 
every  member  of  our  church,  an'  begged  an'  im 
plored  'em  not  to  sell  our  old  meetin'-house  to  the 
feller  that's  since  turned  it  into  a  groggery ;  I  to 
be  told  by  a  feller  like  you,  that's  got  the  guilt  of 
uncounted  drunkards  on  your  soul " 


ESTIMABLE   ORGANIZATION   CRITICISED.        9! 

Crupp,  with  a  very  white  face,  advanced  a  step  or 
two  toward  the  old  man;  but  the  participator  in  the 
Black  Hawk  War  was  not  to  be  frightened,  espe 
cially  when  he  was  so  excited  as  he  was  now ;  so  he 
roared, 

"  Come  on !  come  on !  perhaps  you  want  my 
blood  on  your  soul,  with  all  the  others  ;  but  just  let 
me  tell  you,  it  isn't  easy  to  get !  " 

Crupp  recovered  himself  and  replied,  "  Father 
Baguss,  all  that  you've  done  is  very  well  in  its  way, 
but  it  wasn't  going  into  temperance.  You've  been 
a  first-rate  talker,  I  know,  but  talk  isn't  cider.  Why, 
there's  been  lots  of  men  in  my  store  after  listenin' 
to  one  of  your  strong  temperance  speeches,  and 
laughed  about  what  they've  heard.  I've  told  them 
they  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  themselves — don't 
shake  your  head — I  Jiave,  and  all  they'd  say  would 
be,  'Talk  don't  cost  anything,  Crupp.'  But  if  you'd 
followed  up  your  tongue  with  your  brains,  and 
most  of  all  your  pocket,  not  one  of  them  chaps 
would  have  opened  his  head  about  you." 

"Money!"  exclaimed  the  old  man;  "  didn't  I  tell 
you  that  division  dues  alone  had  cost  me  more'n  a 
hundred  dollars ;  not  to  speak  of  subscriptions  to 
public  meetin's?" 


92  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

"  And  every  cent  that  didn't  go  to  pay  '  divi 
sion  '  expenses,  that  is — for  keeping  a  lodge-room 
in  shape  for  you  to  meet  in,  and  such  things — went 
to  pay  for  more  talk.  Did  you  Sons  of  Temperance 
ever  buy  a  man  away  from  his  whisky?  It  might 
have  been  done — done  cheap,  too — in  almost  any 
week  since  I've  been  in  Barton,  by  helping  down 
hearted  men  along.  Did  you  ever  do  it  yourself?" 

Father  Baguss  was  nonplused  for  a  moment, 
noting  which  a  bystander,  also  a  Son  of  Temper 
ance,  came  valiantly  to  the  rescue  of  his  order,  by 
exclaiming, 

"  Tongues  was  made  to  use,  and  the  better  the 
cause,  the  more  it  needs  to  be  talked  about." 

"  There's  no  getting  away  from  that,"  said  Crupp. 
"  Talk's  all  right  in  its  place ;  but  when  anybody's 
sick  in  your  family,  you  don't  hire  somebody  to 
come  in  and  talk  him  well,  do  you  ?  " 

The  auxiliary  replied  by  pressing  perceptibly 
closer  to  the  bale  of  blankets  against  which  he  had 
been  leaning,  and  Crupp  was  enabled  to  concentrate 
his  attention  upon  Father  Baguss.  But  the  old 
soldier  had  in  his  military  days  unconsciously  ac 
quired  a  tactical  idea  or  two  which  were  frequently 
applicable  in  real  life.  One  of  them  was  that  of 


ESTIMABLE   ORGANIZATION   CRITICISED.        93 

flanking,  and  he  straightway  attempted   it  by  ex 
claiming, 

"  I'd  use  money  quick  enough  on  drunkards,  if  I 
saw  anybody  fit  to  use  it  on,"  said  he ;  "  it  would 
do  my  old  soul  good  to  find  a  drinking  man  that  I 
could  be  sure  money  would  save.  But  they're  a  shift 
less,  worthless  pack  of  shotes,  all  that  I  see  of  'em. 
There  wuz  a  young  fellow — Lije  Mason  his  name 
was — that  I  once  thought  seriously  of  doin'  some- 
thin'  fur;  but  he  went  an'  signed  the  pledge,  an'  got 
along  all  right  by  himself." 

"  But  there's  your  own  neighbors,  old  Tappelmine 
and  his  family — they  all  drink ;  what  have  you 
done  for  'em  ?"  asked  Crupp. 

"  A  lot  of  Kentucky  poor  white  trash !  "  ex 
claimed  Father  Baguss.  "  What  could  anybody 
do  for  'em  ?  Besides,  they  do  for  'emselves  ;  they've 
stole  hams  out  of  my  smoke-house  more'n  once, 
an'  they  know  /  know  it,  too." 

"  Poor  white  trash  is  sometimes  converted  in 
church,  isn't  it  ?  "  asked  Mr.  Crupp  ;  "  and  what's  to 
keep  poor  white  trash  from  stopping  drinking?  what 
but  a  good,  honest,  religious,  rum-hating  neighbor 
that  looks  at  'em  so  savagely  and  lets  'em  alone  so 
hard  that  they'd  take  pains  to  get  drunk,  just  to 


94  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

worry  him?  I  know  how  you  feel  toward  them; 
I  saw  it  once :  one  Sunday  I  passed  you  on  the  road 
jast  opposite  their  place;  you  was  in  your  wagon 
takir.  your  folks  to  church,  and  I — well,  I  was  out 
trying  to  shoot  a  wild  turkey,  which  I  mightn't 
have  been  on  a  Sunday.  They  were  all  laughin'  and 
cuttin'  up  in  the  house — it's  seldom  enough  such 
folks  get  anything  to  laugh  about — and  I  could  just 
see  you  groan,  and  your  face  was  as  black  as  a  thun 
der  cloud,  and  as  savage  as  an  oak  knot  soaked  in 
vinegar.  The  old  man  came  out  just  then  for  an 
armful  of  wood,  and  nodded  at  you  pleasant  enough ; 
but  that  face  of  yours  was  too  much  for  him,  and 
pretty  soon  he  looked  as  if  he'd  have  liked  to  throw 
a  chunk  of  wood  at  your  head.  I'd  have  done  it,  if 
I'd  been  him.  The  old  man  was  awfully  drunk 
when  I  came  back  that  way,  two  or  three  hours 
later.  That  was  a  pretty  day's  work  for  a  Son  of 
Temperance,  wasn't  it — and  Sunday,  too?  " 

The  casing  to  Father  Baguss's  conscience  was  not 
as  thick  as  that  to  his  brain,  and  he  was  silent  ; 
perhaps  the  prospect  of  getting  some  mill  stock 
aided  the  good  work  in  his  heart. 

Crupp  continued  :  "  I'm  a  '  Son  '  myself,  now,  and 
I  know  what  a  man  agrees  to  when  he  join«r  a  divi- 


ESTIMABLE   ORGANIZATION   CRITICISED.          95 

sion.  If  you  think  you've  lived  up  to  it — you  and 
the  other  members  of  the  Barton  Division — I  sup 
pose  you've  a  right  to  your  opinion  ;  but  if  my  ideas, 
picked  up  on  both  sides  of  the  fence,  are  worth  any 
thing  to  you,  they  amount  to  just  this  :  the  Sons 
of  Temperance  in  this  town  haven't  done  anything 
but  help  each  other  not  to  get  back  into  bad  ways 
again,  and  to  give  a  welcomin'  hand  to  anybody 
that's  strong  enough  in  himself  to  come  into  the 
division  with  you  ;  and  that  isn't  the  spirit  of  the 
order." 

Crupp  got  his  sugar,  and  no  one  pressed  him  to 
stay  longer;  but,  as  he  slowly  departed,  as  became  a 
soldier  who  was  not  retreating  but  only  changing 
his  base,  Father  Baguss  followed  him,  touched  his 
sleeve  as  soon  as  he  found  himself  outside  the  store 
door,  and  said, 

"  Say,  Crupp,  I'll  try  to  do  something  for  Tap- 
pelmine,  though  I  don't  know  yet  what  it'll  be,  an' 
I  don't  care  if  you  do  let  me  have  about  five  sheers 
of  that  mill  stock;  I  s'pose  you  won't  want  more 
than  you  paid  for  it  ?  ' 


CHAPTER  IX. 

SOME  VOLUNTEER  SHEPHERDS. 

THE  mail-stage  did  not  make  its  appearance  at 
the  usual  hour  on  the  day  following  Crupp's 
conversation  with  Father  Baguss,  and  during  a  lull 
in  the  desultory  conversation  which  prevailed  among 
those  who  were  waiting  for  the  mail,  the  postmaster 
displayed  at  his  window  his  large,  round  face,  devoid 
of  its  habitual  jolly  smile,  and  remarked, 

"  Too  bad  about  Wainright,  isn't  it  ?  " 

" What's  that?"  asked  half  a  dozen  at  once. 

The  postmaster  looked  infinitely  more  important 
all  in  a  second.  It  is  but  seldom  in  this  world  that 
a  man  can  tell  a  bit  of  news  to  an  assembled  crowd; 
and  in  an  inland  town,  before  the  day  of  the  omni 
present  telegraph  pole,  the  chances  were  proportion 
ately  fewer  than  elsewhere.  The  postmaster  had  a 
generous  heart,  however,  and  at  the  risk  of  losing 
his  importance  he  opened  his  treasure-house  all  at 
once: 

"He's  been  pretty  high  on  whiskey  fo^two  or 


SOME  VOLUNTEER  SHEPHERDS.        97 

three  days,"  said  he,  "  and  they  say  he's  got  snakes 
in  his  boots  now ;  anyhow,  he's  made  a  sudden 
break  for  Louisville  ;  he  started  on  foot,  an  hour  or 
two  ago,  for  Brown's  Landing,  seven  miles  below 
here,  to  catch  a  down-river  steamboat ;  he  was  clear 
headed  enough  to  find  out  first  that  it  wasn't  likely 
that  the  Excellence,  that's  about  due,  wouldn't 
have  any  freight  to  stop  for  here.  His  wife's  half 
wild  about  it,  but  there's  nothing  the  poor  thing 
can  do." 

"  Poor,  misguided  man  !  "  sighed  Parson  Wedge- 
well,  who  had  arrived  just  in  time  to  hear  the  story. 
"The  ways  of  Providence  are  undoubtedly  wise, 
but  they  are  indeed  mysterious.  Judging  accord 
ing  to  our  finite  capacities,  it  would  be  natural  to 
suppose  that  capabilities  so  unusual  as  those  of  Mr. 
Wainright  would  be  divinely  guided." 

"  I  saw  him  coming  down  the  walk,"  observed 
Squire  Tomple,  "  and  I  thought  he  looked  rather 
peculiar,  so  I  just  stepped  across  the  street ;  I  don't 
like  to  get  into  a  row  with  men  in  that  fix." 

"  Of  course  getting  into  a  row  was  the  only  thing 
that  could  be  done,"  said  Crupp,  who  had  apparently 
been  carefully  reading  a  posted  notice  of  a  sheriff's 
sale. 

5 


98  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

The  Squire  did  not  enjoy  the  tone  in  which 
Crupp's  remark  was  delivered  ;  but  before  he  could 
reason  with  the  new  reformer,  the  Reverend  Timo- 
theus  Brown  dashed  into  the  fray  in  defense  of  a 
beloved  idea,  which  the  rival  pastor  had  seemed 
covertly  to  assail. 

"  The  reason  such  natures  aren't  divinely  guided," 
said  he,  in  a  voice  which  suggested  nutmeg-graters 
to  the  acute  sensibilities  of  Parson  Wedgewcll,  "  is 
that  they  don't  implicitly  submit  themselves  to  the 
Divine  will." 

"  A  man  can  do  nothing  unless  the  Spirit  draw 
him,"  said  Parson  Wedgewell  valiantly. 

"  That's  rather  hard  on  a  fellow,  though,  isn't  it  ?'. 
soliloquized  Fred  Macdonald. 

"  Not  a  bit  of  it,"  spoke  out  Father  Baguss,  who 
had  been  scenting  the  battle  from  an  inner  room. 
"  Bless  the  Lord  !  the  parables  of  the  lost  sheep  that 
the  shepherd  left  the  rest  of  the  flock  to  look  for, 
and  the  lost  coin  that  the  woman  hunted  for,  wasn't 
told  for  nothin'.  The  Lord  knows  how  to  'tend  to 
his  own  business." 

"  And  nobody  else  can  do  a  thing  to  help  the 
Lord  along,  can  he  ?  "  said  Crupp,  passing  his  arm 
through  the  postmaster's  window,  and  extracting 


SOME  VOLUNTEER  SHEPHERDS.       99 

from  his  box  a  copy  of  the  Louisville  Journal 
(then  the  only  paper  of  prominence  in  a  large  sec 
tion  of  Western  country)  ;  "  all  that  men  have  to  do 
in  such  cases  is  just  to  talk." 

Crupp  departed,  encountering  on  the  way  the 
wide-open  countenance  of  Tom  Adams,  who  was 
waiting  for  Deacon  Jones's  mail.  The  two  pastors 
preserved  silence,  that  of  Mr.  Brown  being  extremely 
dignified,  with  a  visible  trace  of  acerbity,  while  that 
of  Mr.  Wedgewell  was  strongly  suggestive  of  men 
tal  unquiet.  The  distribution  of  the  small  mail, 
which  had  arrived  soon  after  the  conversation  began, 
gave  everybody  an  excuse  to  depart — an  excuse  of 
which  most  of  them  availed  themselves  at  once, 
Squire  Tomple  having  first  changed  the  direction 
of  the  conversation  by  inquiring  particularly  of 
Father  Baguss  as  to  the  number  and  probable 
weight  of  the  porkers  which  the  old  man  was  fat 
tening  for  the  winter  market.  The  subject  lasted 
only  until  the  two  men  reached  the  door,  however, 
and  then  each  sympathized  with  the  other  over  the 
wounds  received  at  the  hands,  or  tongue,  of  the  un 
sentimental  and  irreligious  Crupp.  Yet  the  more 
they  talked  of  Crupp,  the  less  they  seemed  to  realize 
their  pain. 

4 


100  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

Tom  Adams  went  straight  to  his  employer's  store, 
and  exclaimed,  not  in  his  usualingenuous  manner, 

"  Deacon,  old  Berry  won't  take  that  load  of  bricks 
unless  he  gets 'em  right  off ;  I  guess  I'll  take  'em 
right  out  to  him.  It's  a  long  trip,  but  there's  three 
hours  yet  'fore  dark." 

"  Be  sure  you  do,  then,  Thomas,"  said  the 
deacon. 

Tom  was  soon  in  his  wagon,  and  going  toward 
the  brick-yard  at  a  livelier  rate  than  was  consistent 
with  the  proper  care  of  horses  with  a  long,  heavy 
pull  before  them.  The  bricks  were  loaded  with 
apparent  regard  to  count,  but  not  in  good  order, 
and,  as  Tom  followed  the  road  to  old  Berry's,  he 
soliloquized  : 

"  I  ort  to  be  able  to  ketch  him  after  I  deliver  the 
bricks,  but  what  in  thunder  am  I  to  say  to  him  ? 
Like  enough  he'll  knock  me  down  if  I  don't  look 
out.  That's  just  the  notion,  I  a^-clare !  I  can 
knock  him  down,  and  put  him  right  in  the  wagon 
and  bring  him  back;  the  joltin'  would  fetch  him  to 
and  clear  his  head,  like  it's  done  mine  often  enough 
when  I've  been  in  his  fix.  But,  hang  it,  what  a 
ridick'lus  goose-chase  it  does  look  like !  " 

Meanwhile  the  Reverend  Timotheus  Brown  had 


SOME  VOLUNTEER  SHEPHERDS. 


limped  down  the  main  street,  looking  a  little  more 
unapproachable  than  usual.  As  he  reached  the 
edge  of  the  town,  however,  where  there  began  the 
low  plain  which  led  to  the  river,  he  quickened  his 
pace  somewhat,  and  he  did  not  stop  until  he  reached 
the  river.  Upon  a  raft  sat  a  man  fishing,  and  near 
by  a  canoe  was  tied  ;  in  this  latter  the  preacher 
seated  himself,  having  first  untied  it. 

"  Hello,  there  !  What  are  you  a-doin'  with  my 
dug-out?"  shouted  the  fisherman. 

"  The  Lord  hath  need  of  it  !  "  roared  the  old 
divine,  picking  tip  the  paddle. 

"Well,  I'll  be-  -!"  exclaimed  the  man;  "if 
that  aint  the  coolest  !  The  Lord'll  get  a  duckin', 
I  reckon,  for  that's  the  wobbliest  canoe.  I  don't 
know,  though  ;  the  old  fellow  paddles  as  if  he  were 
used  to  it." 

Away  down  the  river  went  the  Reverend  Timo- 
theus  ;  at  the  same  time  Fred  Macdonald,  on  horse 
back,  hailed  the  ferry-boat,  crossed  the  river,  and 
galloped  down  the  opposite  bank,  and  Crupp,  a 
half  an  hour  later,  might  have  been  seen  lying  on 
his  oars  in  a  skiff  in  a  shallow  a  mile  above  the 
town,  waiting  to  board  the  Excellence,  as  she  came 
down  the  stream. 


BARTON  EXPERIMENT. 


"  Tears  to  me  preachers  are  out  for  a  walk  to 
day,"  said  one  old  lady  to  another  across  a  garden 
fence,  in  one  edge  of  the  town.  "  I  saw  Mr.  Brown 
'way  down  the  street  ever  so  far  to-day,  an'  now 
here's  Brother  Wedgewell  'way  out  here.  I  thought 
like  enough  he  was  goin'  to  call,  but  he  went 
straight  along  an'  only  bowed,  awful  solemn." 

Parson  Wedgewell  certainly  walked  very  fast,  and 
the  more  ground  he  covered  the  more  rapidly  his 
feet  moved,  and  not  his  feet  only.  In  long  stretches 
of  road  shut  in  by  forest  trees  he  found  himself  de 
void  of  a  single  mental  restraint,  and  he  thought 
aloud  as  he  walked. 

"  Rebuked  by  a  sinner  !  O  God  !  with  my  whole 
heart  I  have  sought  thee,  and  thou  hast  instead  re 
vealed  thyself  not  only  unto  babes  and  sucklings, 
but  unto  one  who  is  certainly  not  like  unto  one  of 
these  little  ones.  Teach  me  thy  will,  for  verily  in 
written  books  I  fear  I  have  found  it  not.  What  if 
the  boat  reaches  the  landing  before  I  do,  and  this 
lost  sheep  escapes  me  ?  Father  in  Heaven,  the 
shepherd  is  astray  in  his  way,  even  as  the  sheep  is  ; 
but  O  thou  !  who  didst  say  that  the  race  is  not  to 
the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong,  make  the  fee 
ble  power  of  man  to  triumph  over  great  engines 


SOME  VOLUNTEER   SHEPHERDS.  103 

and  the  hurrying  of  mighty  waters.  Fulfill  thy 
promise,  O  God,  for  the  sake  of  the  soul  thou  hast 
committed  to  my  charge  !  " 

Then,  like  a  man  who  believed  in  helping  his  own 
prayers  along,  the  parson  snatched  off  his  coat  and 
hat  and  increased  his  speed.  He  was  far  outside  of 
his  own  parish,  for  most  of  his  congregation  were 
townsmen,  and  the  old  pastor  knew  no  more  of  the 
geography  of  the  country  about  him  than  he  did  of 
Chinese  Tartary.  He  had  taken  what  was  known 
as  the  "  River  Road,"  and  thus  far  his  course  had 
been  plain  ;  now,  however,  he  reached  a  place  where 
the  road  divided,  and  which  branch  to  take  he  did 
not  know.  Ordinary  sense  of  locality  would  have 
taught  him  in  an  instant,  but  the  parson  had  no 
such  sense  ;  there  was  no  house  in  sight  at  which  he 
could  ask  his  way,  and,  to  add  to  his  anxiety,  the 
Excellence  came  down  the  river  to  his  left  and 
rear,  puffing  and  shrieking  as  if  the  making  of 
hideous  noises  was  the  principal  qualification  of  a 
river  steamer.  The  old  man  fell  upon  his  knees, 
raised  his  face  and  hands  toward  heaven,  and 
exclaimed, 

"  The  hosts  of  hell  are  pressing  hard,  O  God  ! 
Thou  who  didst  guide  thy  chosen  people  with  a  pil- 


104  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

lar  of  fire,  show  now  to  thy  unworthy  servant  that 
thou  art  God  !  " 

What  the  parson  saw  he  never  told,  but  he  sprang 
to  his  feet  and  went  down  the  left-hand  road  at  a 
lively  run,  a  moment  after  Tom  Adams,  half  a  mile 
in  the  rear,  had  shaded  his  eyes  and  exclaimed, 

"  Blamed  if  there  isn't  a  feller  a-prayin'  right  out 
in  the  road  ;  if  he  wants  anything  that  bad,  I  hope 
he'll  get  it.  Travel,  Selim— get  up,  Bill !— let's  see 
who  he  is." 


CHAPTER  X. 

BRINGING  HOME  THE   SHEEP. 

QPEAKING  after  the  manner  of  the  flesh,  the 
*^  Reverend  Timotheus  Brown  had  found  only 
plain  sailing  on  the  river;  spiritually,  he  had  a  very 
different  experience.  "As  stubborn  as  a  mule" 
was  the  most  common  of  the  current  estimates  of 
Pastor  Brown's  character ;  and  if  the  conscientious 
old  preacher  had  ever  personally  heard  this  opinion 
of  himself,  the  verbal  expression  thereof  would  have 
given  him  but  slight  annoyance,  compared  with  that 
which  he  experienced  from  his  own  inner  man  as 
he  paddled  down  the  stream.  To  forcibly  resist 
something  so  satisfied  the  strongest  demand  of  his 
nature  that  neither  shortening  breath  nor  blistering 
hands  caused  him  to  slacken  the  speed  with  which 
he  forced  his  paddle  against  the  water.  But  another 
contest  was  going  on,  and  in  this  the  consistent 
theologian  was  not  so  triumphant  as  he  liked  always 
to  be.  Harry  Wainright  was  one  of  the  ungodly  ; 
that  he  owned  (and  frequently  occupied)  a  high- 


106  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

priced  pew  in  Mr.  Brown's  own  church  was  only 
another  reason  why  the  preacher  should  quo'te  con 
cerning  him,  "  He  that  being  often  reproved  har- 

deneth  his  neck " —  what   if  the  conclusion  of 

the  same  passage — "  shall  suddenly  be  destroyed, 
and  that  without  remedy,"  should  apply  ?  What 
could  prevent  its  doing  so,  if  Wainright  had  fulfilled 
the  description  in  the  first  half?  Had  not  the  same 
God  inspired  the  whole  passage?  If  so,  what  right 
had  any  man,  least  of  all  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  to 
try  to  set  at  naught  the  Divine  will?  Harry  Wain- 
rj^ht  was,  according  to  the  decrees  of  an  unchange 
able  God,  one  of  the  lost — as  much  so  as  if  he  were 
already  in  the  bottomless  pit.  And  still  the  old  man's 
paddle  flew ;  once  on  the  trip  he  had  felt  as  if  the 
weakness  of  the  arm  of  flesh  would  decide  the  case 
for  him,  and  in  favor  of  the  Word  whose  expounder 
he  was  ;  he  found  himself  wishing  that  it  might,  so 
that  he  could  feel  that  although  God  had  overruled 
him,  he  might  have  comfort  in  the  assurance  that 
he  had  not  proved  indifferent  to  his  sudden  emotion 
of  yearning  for  his  fellow  man.  But  that  mysterious 
physical  readjustment,  known  in  animals  as  "  second 
breath,"  came  to  the  rescue  of  his  fainting  frame, 
and  then  it  seemed  as  if  no  watery  torrent  could 


BRINGING   HOME   THE   SHEEP.  IO/ 

prevail  against  the  force  of  his  arm.  Oh!  if  he 
might  but  talk  to  some  one  of  the  fathers  of  the 
church;  that  he  might  be,  even  for  ten  minutes, 
back  in  his  own  library !  But  no  father  of  the 
church  resided  along  the  Reverend  Brown's  nauti 
cal  course,  nor  was  there  a  theological  library 
nearer  than  his  own,  and  there  he  was,  actually  bent 
upon  saving  one  whom  the  Eternal  pronounced 
lost!  Lost?  Hold!  "  For  the  Son  of  Man  is 
come  into  the  world  to  save  them  that  are  lost."  If 
Christ  had  a  right  to  save  the  lost,  had  not  an  am 
bassador  of  Christ  the  same  privilege  ?  was  not  $n 
ambassador  one  who  stood  in  the  place — who  ful 
filled  the  duties — of  an  absent  king?  "  Glory  be  to 
God  on  high  !  "  shouted  the  Reverend  Timotheus, 
and  the  dense  woods  echoed  back  "  God  on  high  !  " 
as  the  old  man,  forty  years  a  conscientious  pastor, 
but  only  that  instant  converted  to  Christianity, 
drove  his  paddle  into  the  water  with  a  force  that 
nearly  threw  the  canoe  into  the  air. 

As  for  Parson  Wedgewell,  whom  we  left  arising 
from  his  knees  after  asking  information  from  his 
Divine  guide,  he  found  himself  upon  the  right  road. 
The  river  was  nearer  than  he  had  dared  to  hope ;  a  run 
of  half  a  mile  brought  him  into  a  clearing,  in  which 


IO8  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

stood  Brown's  warehouse,  near  the  river.  The  Ex 
cellence  had  just  put  her  nose  against  the  bank,  and 
the  clerk  at  the  warehouse  was  tired  of  wondering 
why  Fred  Macdonald,  on  the  opposite  bank,  was 
shouting  so  impatiently  to  the  ferryman,  and  why 
an  old  man  in  a  canoe  should  be  coming  down  the 
river  at  the  rate  of  fifty-paddle  strokes  per  minute, 
when  he  saw  Parson  Wedgewell,  coatless,  hatless, 
with  open  shirt,  disordered  hair,  and  face  covered 
with  dirt  deposited  just  after  an  unlucky  stumble, 
come  flying  along  the  road,  closely  followed  by  Torn 
Adams,  who  was  lashing  his  horses  furiously.  A 
happy  inspiration  struck  the  clerk ;  he  shouted 
"  Horse  thief!  "  and  seized  the  parson,  and  instantly 
received  a  blow  under  the  chin  which  rendered  him 
inactive  and  despondent  for  the  space  of  half  an 
hour.  The  parson  saw  the  gang-plank  shoved  out  ; 
he  saw  Harry  Wainright  step  aboard  ;  he  saw  the 
Rev.  Timotheus  jump  from  his  canoe  into  water 
knee  deep,  dash  up  the  plank,  and  throw  his  arm 
O'/er  Harry  Wainright's  shoulder ;  but  only  a  second 
or  two  elapsed  before  Parson  Wedgewell  monopo 
lized  the  runaway's  other  side,  and  then,  as  the 
three  men  stared  at  each  other,  neither  one  speak 
ing  a  word,  and  the  two  pastors  bursting  into 


BRINGING   HOME   THE   SHEEP.  109 

tears,  Tom  Adams  hurried  aboard,  and  ex 
claimed, 

"  Mr.  Wainright,  Mrs.  Wainright  is  particular 
anxious  to  see  you  this  evenin',  for  something  I 
don't  know  what,  an*  I  hadn't  time  to  get  any  sort 
of  a  carriage  for  fear  I'd  lose  the  boat;  but  there's 
good  springs  to  the  seat  of  the  brick-yard  wagon,  an' 
a  new  sheep-skin  besides."  No  other  words  coming 
to  Tom's  mind,  he  abruptly  walked  forward  mutter 
ing,  "  That's  the  cock-an'-bullest  yarn  I  ever  did 
tell ;  I  knew  I  wouldn't  know  what  to  say."  As  Tom 
meditated,  he  heard  one  "  roustabout "  say  to  an 
other, 

"  I  say,  Bill,  you  know  that  feller  that  used  to  sell 
such  bully  whiskey  in  Barton  ?  Well,  he's  around 
there  on  the  guards,  dancin'  like  a  lunatic.  I 
shouldn't  wonder  if  that's  what  come  of  swearin'  off 
drinkin'." 

"  Mighty  unsafe  perceedin',"  replied  Bill,  eyeing 
Crupp  suspiciously. 

Harry  Wainright  made  not  the  slightest  objection 
to  going  back  home,  and  he  acted  very  much  like  a 
man  who  was  glad  of  the  company  in  which  he 
found  himself.  The  divine  of  the  canoe  looked  at 
his  blistered  hands,  and  paid  the  resuscitated  clerk 
3* 


IIO  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

to  send  the  boat  back  by  the  first  steamer.  While 
Fred  Macdonald  was  crossing  the  river,  Tom  Adams 
kindly  drove  back  the  road  and  recovered  Parson 
Wedgewell's  coat  and  hat,  and  the  parson  accepted 
the  hospitalities  of  the  boat  to  the  extent  of  water, 
soap,  and  towel.  He  attempted  to  make  his  peace 
with  the  injured  clerk;  but  that  functionary,  having 
already  interviewed  Tom  Adams,  insisted  that  no 
apology  was  necessary,  and  asked  the  old  gentleman 
in  what  church  he  preached. 

As  the  party  started  back,  they  saw,  coming 
through  a  cross-road,  a  buggy  violently  driven,  and 
containing  two  men — who  proved  to  be  Squire 
Tomple  and  Father  Baguss — in  a  vehicle  belonging 
to  the  latter  ;  their  air  of  having  merely  happened 
there  deceived  no  one,  least  of  all  Harry  Wainright 
himself.  Father  Baguss  did  not  live  in  town,  nor 
within  four  miles  of  it ;  but  when  Squire  Tomple 
suggested  that  he  would  beg  a  ride  back  in  Tom 
Adams's  wagon,  Father  Baguss  objected,  and  re 
marked  that  he  guessed  he  had  business  in  town 
himself;  so  the  Squire  retained  his  seat,  and  Father 
Baguss  fell  in  behind  the  wagon  as  decorously  as  if 
he  was  taking  part  in  a  funeral  procession.  Behind 
them  came  Fred  Macdonald,  who  had  goocl  excuse 


BRINGING   HOME   THE   SHEEP.  Ill 

to  gallop  back  to  the  peculiar  attraction  that 
awaited  him  in  Barton,  but  preferred  to  remain  in 
his  present  company.  As  the  party  approached  the 
town,  Tom  Adams  considerately  drove  through  the 
darkest  and  most  unfrequented  streets,  and  stopped 
as  near  as  possible  to  Wainright's  house.  Wainright, 
politely  declining  any  escort,  walked  quietly  home. 
Father  Baguss  stood  up  in  his  buggy,  with  his  hand 
to  his  ear,  in  the  original  position  of  attention : 
suddenly  he  exclaimed, 

"  There !  I  heard  his  door  shut :  now,  breth 
ren."  And  Father  Baguss  started  the  doxology. 
"  Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow,"  and 
the  glorious  harmonies  of  the  old  choral  were 
proof  even  against  the  tremendous  but  discordant 
notes  which  Tom  Adams,  with  the  most  honorable 
intentions,  interjected  in  rapid  succession.  Then 
the  party  broke  up.  The  two  pastors  escorted  each 
other  home  alternately  and  several  times  in  suc 
cession,  during  which  apparently  meaningless  pro 
ceeding  they  learned,  each  from  the  other,  how 
much  of  good  intent  had  been  stifled  in  both  of 
them  for  lack  of  prompt  application.  Crupp  and 
Tomple  talked  but  little,  and  no  "  Imaginary  Con 
versation  "  would  be  at  all  likely  to  reproduce  what 


112  THE  BARTON  EXPERIMENT. 

they  said.  Father  Baguss  made  the  whole  air 
between  Barton  and  his  own  farm  redolent  of  camp- 
meeting  airs,  and  Fred  Macdonald  heard  in  Parson 
Wedgewell's  parlor  something  sweeter  than  all  the 
music  ever  written.  As  for  Tom  Adams,  he  jogged 
slowly  toward  his  employer's  stables,  repeating  to 
himself, 

"  The  bulliest  spree   I   ever  went  on — the  very 
bulliest ! " 


CHAPTER  XI. 

DOCTORS  AND   BOYS. 

THERE  were  two  elements  of  Barton  society 
with  which  Mr.  Crupp  had  not  been  so  suc 
cessful  as  he  had  hoped  ;  these  were  the  doctors,  and 
that  elastic  body  known  as  "  the  boys."  Individ 
ually,  the  physicians  had  promised  well  at  first ;  all 
of  them  but  one  were  members  of  the  Barton  Di 
vision  of  the  Sons  of  Temperance,  and  the  Division 
rooms  afforded  the  only  floor  upon  which  Dr.  White, 
the  allopathist,  Dr.  Perry,  thehomeopathist,  and  Dr. 
Pykem,  the  water-cure  physician,  ever  could  meet 
amicably,  for  they  belonged  to  separate  churches. 
Old  Dr.  Matthews,  who  had  retired  from  prac 
tice,  was  not  a  "  Son,"  only  because  he  was  a  con 
scientious  opponent  of  secret  societies ;  but  he  had 
signed  every  public  pledge  ever  circulated  in  Barton, 
and  he  had  never  drunk  a  drop  of  liquor  in  his  life. 
All  the  physicians  freely  admitted  to  Mr.  Crupp 
that  alcohol  was  a  never-failing  cause  of  disease,  or 


114  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

at  least  of  physical  deterioration  ;  all  declared  that 
no  class  of  maladies  were  so  incurable,  and  so  de 
pressing  to  the  spirits  of  the  medical  practitioner, 
as  those  to  which  habitual  drinkers,  even  those  who 
were  never  drunk,  were  subject ;  but — they  really  did 
not  see  what  more  they,  the  physicians  of  Barton, 
could  do  than  they  were  already  doing.  Crupp  dis 
cussed  the  matter  with  Parson  Wedgewell,  and  the 
parson  volunteered  to  preach  a  sermon  to  physicians 
from  the  text,  "  Give  wine  unto  those  that  be  of 
heavy  hearts/'  a  text  which  had  suggested  itself  to 
him,  or,  rather,  had  been  providentially  suggested  to 
him  on  the  occasion  of  his  very  first  interview  with 
Crupp,  and  which  was  outlined  in  his  mind  in  a  man 
ner  suggestive  of  delightful  subtleties  and  a  startling 
application.  But  when  Crupp  sounded  the  doctors  as 
to  whether  such  a  discourse  would  be  agreeable,  Dr. 
White  said  he  would  be  glad  to  listen  to  the  elo 
quent  divine  ;  but  he  was  conscientiously  opposed  to 
appearing,  even  by  the  faintest  implication,  to  ad 
mit  that  the  homeopathist  was  a  physician  at  all. 
Dr.  Perry  felt  his  need,  as  a  partaker  in  the  fall  of 
Adam,  to  being  preached  to  from  any  portion  of 
the  inspired  Word ;  but  he  could  not  sit  in  an  audi 
ence  to  which  such  a  humbug  as  Pykem  could  be 


DOCTORS  AND   BOYS.  1 15 

admitted  in  an  official  capacity ;  while  Dr.  Pykem 
said  that  he  would  rejoice  to  encourage  the  preacher 
by  his  presence,  if  he  thought  any  amount  of  preach 
ing  would  do  any  good  to  a  remorseless  slaughterer 
like  White,  or  an  idiotic  old  potterer  like  Perry. 
Then  Mr.  Crupp  tried  another  plan :  he  himself  or 
ganized  a  meeting  in  which  the  exercises  were  to 
consist  of  short  addresses  upon  the  physical  bearing 
of  intemperance,  the  addresses  to  be  made  by  "  cer 
tain  of  our  fellow-citizens  who  have  had  many  op 
portunities  for  special  observation  in  this  direction." 
Even  then  Drs.  White  and  Perry  objected  to  sitting 
on  the  same  platform  with  Dr.  Pykem,  who  had 
never  attended  any  medical  school  of  any  sort,  and 
who  would  probably  say  something  utterly  ridicu 
lous  in  support  of  his  own  senseless  theories,  and 
thus  spoil  the  effect  of  the  physiological  facts  and 
deductions  which  Drs.  Perry  and  White  each  ad 
mitted  that  the  other  might  be  intellectually  capable 
of  advancing.  Crupp  arranged  the  matter  amicably, 
however,  by  having  Pykem  make  the  first  address, 
during  which  the  other  two  physicians  were  to 
occupy  back  seats,  where  they  might,  while  unob 
served,  take  notes  of  such  of  Pykem's  heresies  as 
they  might  deem  it  necessary  to  combat :  he  further 


Il6  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

arranged  that,  immediately  after  Pykem  had  conclud 
ed,  he  was  to  be  called  away  to  a  patient,  provided 
for  the  occasion.  Still  more — and  great  would  have 
been  the  disgust  of  White  and  Perry  had  they  known 
of  it — Crupp  laid  so  plainly  before  Pykem  the  ne 
cessities  of  the  community,  and  the  duty,  not  only 
Christian,  but  of  the  simplest  manliness,  also,  that 
men  of  any  intelligence  owed  to  their  fellow-men, 
that  Pykem,  who  with  all  his  hobbies  was  a  man  of 
Christian  belief  and  humane  heart,  confined  himself 
solely  to  the  preventive  efficacy  of  external  appli 
cations  of  water,  not  unmixed  with  soap,  in  the  case 
of  persons  who  felt  toward  alcohol  a  craving  which 
they  could  not  logically  explain  ;  he  thus  delivered 
an  address  which  might,  with  cause,  be  repeated  in 
every  community  in  the  United  States.  Then  Dr. 
Perry,  whose  forte  was  experimental  physiology,  read 
whole  tables  of  statistics  based  upon  systematic  ob 
servations  ;  and  Dr.  White  unrolled  and  explained 
s.me  charts  and  plates  of  various  internal  organs, 
naturally  unhandsome  in  themselves,  which  had 
been  injured  by  alcohol.  It  was  declared  by  close 
observers  that  for  a  few  days  after  this  meeting  the 
demand  for  sponges  and  toilet  soap  exceeded  the  ex 
perience  of  the  old  and  single  apothecary  of  the 


DOCTORS  AND   BOYS.  Ii; 

village,  and  that  liquor-sellers  looked  either  sober  or 
savage,  according  to  their  respective  natures. 

But  the  boys  !  Crupp  found  himself  in  time  really 
disposed  to  ask  Pastors  Wedgewell  and  Brown 
whether  there  wasn't  Scriptural  warrant  for  the  sup 
position  that  Job  obtained  his  sons  by  marrying  a 
widow  with  a  grown-up  family.  "  The  boys  "  num 
bered  about  a  hundred  specimens,  ranging  in  age 
from  fourteen  years  to  forty  ;  no  two  were  alike  in 
disposition,  as  Crupp  had  long  known  ;  they  came 
from  all  sorts  of  peculiar  social  conditions  that 
warred  against  their  physical  and  moral  well-being ; 
some  of  them  seemed  wholly  corrupt,  and  bent  upon 
corrupting  others ;  many  more  exhibited  a  faculty 
for  promising  which  could  be  matched  in  magnitude 
only  by  their  infirmity  of  performance.  By  a  vig 
orous  course  of  individual  exhortation,  the  burden 
of  which  was  that  everybody  knew  they  drank 
because  they  were  too  cowardly  to  refuse,  and  that 
nobody  despised  them  so  heartily  as  the  very  men 
who  sold  them  the  rum,  Crupp  lessened  the  num 
ber  of  drinking  boys  by  about  one-fourth,  thus  res 
cuing  those  who  were  easiest  to  save  and  most 
worth  saving,  but  the  remainder  made  as  much 
trouble  as  the  collective  body  had  done.  Crupp 


Il8  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

scolded,  pleaded,  and  argued  ;  he  hired  some  boys 
to  drop  liquor  for  at  least  a  stated  time ;  he  impor 
tuned  some  of  the  more  refined  citizens  to  interest 
themselves  socially  in  certain  boys ;  he  lent  some 
of  these  boys  money  with  which  to  buy  clothing 
which  would  bring  their  personal  appearance  up 
to  the  Barton  standard  of  respectability,  and  he 
covertly  excited  some  of  the  merchants  up  to  a 
genuine  interest  in  certain  boys,  by  persuading  them 
to  sell  to  said  boys  coats,  boots,  and  hats  on  credits 
nominally  short. 

-  He  enjoyed  the  hearty  co-operation  of  the  village 
pastors,  all  of  whom  preached  sermons  to  young 
men  and  to  parents  ;  but  his  principal  practical 
assistance  came,  quite  unexpectedly,  from  old  Bun- 
ley.  Bunley  had  not  yet  succeeded  in  finding  any 
thing  to  do,  and,  as  he  had  on  his  hands  all  of  his 
time  which  was  not  needed  at  the  family  woodpile, 
he  went  around  talking  to  the  boys.  Bunley  had 
been,  according  to  the  Barton  classification,  a  "  boy  " 
himself;  he  had  drunk  in  a  not  remote  day  with 
any  boy  who  invited  him  ;  he  knew  more  jolly  songs 
than  any  other  half  dozen  inebriates  in  the  village, 
and  was  simply  oppressed  with  the  load  of  good 
(bad)  stories  which  he  never  tired  of  telling  ;  he  had 


DOCTORS  AND   BOYS.  119 

been  always  ready  to  play  cards  with  any  boy,  and 
had  come  to  be  regarded,  among  the  youngsters,  as 
"  the  best  fellow  in  the  village."  Now  that  he  had 
reformed,  his  success  in  reforming  boys  was  simply 
remarkable — so  much  so  that  Parson  Wedgewell 
began  to  tremble  over  the  thought  that  Bunley,  by 
the  present  results  of  the  experience  of  his  sinful 
days,  might  demonstrate,  beyond  the  hope  of  refuta 
tion,  the  dreadful  proposition  that  it  was  better  that 
a  man  should  be  a  sinner  in  his  youth,  so  as  to  know 
how  to  be  a  saint  when  he  became  old.  This  idea 
Parson  Wedgewell  laid,  with  much  trepidation, 
before  the  Reverend  Timotheus  Brown,  and  the  two 
old  saints  and  new  friends  had  a  delightfully  dole 
ful  time  on  their  knees  over  it,  until  there  occurred 
to  the  Reverend  Timotheus  Brown  a  principle  which 
he  proceeded  to  formulate  as  follows  :  The  greater 
the  capacity  of  a  misguided  faculty  for  evil,  the 
greater  the  good  the  same  faculty  may  accomplish 
when  in  its  normal  condition.  To  be  sure,  the  dis 
covery  was  not  original  with  him  ;  the  same  state 
ment  had  been  made  by  peripatetic  phrenologists  at 
Barton  ;  indeed,  it  was  visible,  to  one  who  could 
read  rather  than  merely  repeat  words,  in  every  chap 
ter  of  the  Bible  so  dear  to  this  good  old  man  ;  but 


120  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

the  illusion  under  which  Parson  Brown  was  allowed 
to  labor  worked  powerfully  for  his  own  good  and  for 
that  of  the  community,  for  from  that  time  forth 
both  he  and  Parson  Wedgewell  displayed  their 
greatest  earnestness  in  work  with  cases  apparently 
the  most  hopeless.  These  they  found  among  "  the 
boys,"  and  harder  work  no  reformer  ever  laid 
out  for  himself.  The  ingenuity,  the  persistence,  the 
determined  brutality  of  some  of  the  boys,  the  logi 
cal  acuteness  displayed  in  varied  fits  of  deception, 
only  stimulated  the  old  man  to  greater  industry, 
and  slowly,  after  hard  work,  often  after  work  that 
seemed  more  like  hard  fighting,  but  yet  surely, 
Parson  Brown  reformed  one  after  another  of  several 
hard  cases.  The  villagers,  most  of  whom  considered 
that  their  whole  duty  consisted  in  critical  observa 
tion,  applauded  handsomely,  and  Bunley  was  aston 
ished,  and  felt  considerably  mortified  at  the  marked 
success  of  his  new  rival,  while  Parson  Wedgewell 
found  it  necessary  to  pray  earnestly  that  unchristian 
jealousy  might  be  banished  from  his  own  mind. 
But  to  Parson  Brown  the  greatest  triumph  occurred 
when  Crupp — Crupp,  the  literalist,  the  hard-headed, 
the  man  who  trusted  in  the  arm  of  flesh,  the  man 
of  action,  he  who  slightingly  received  any  sugges- 


DOCTORS  AND   BOYS.  121 

tions  of  special  thank-offerings  of  prayer  for  special 
services  received — Crupp  came  to  him  by  night — it 
reminded  Parson  Brown  of  Nicodemus — and  ex 
claimed,  "  It's  no  use,  Parson  ;  I've  done  my  best  on 
Frank  Pughger,  but  he's  a  goner  if  God  don't  put  in 
a  special  hand.  I'll  turn  him  over  to  you,  I  guess." 


CHAPTER  XII. 

TWO   SIDES   OF  A   CLOUD. 

f  I  ^HE  holy  hilarity  which  Father  Baguss  enjoyed 
-*-  on  his  way  home,  after  having  assisted  in 
bringing  Harry  Wainright  back,  did  not  depart 
with  the  shades  of  night.  The  old  man  was  out  of 
bed  at  his  usual  hour,  and  he  took  his  spiritual 
songs  to  the  barn  with  him,  to  the  astonishment  of 
his  mild-eyed  cows  and  quick-cared  horses;  and 
when  his  drove  of  porkers  demanded  their  morning 
meal  with  the  vocal  power  peculiar  to  a  chorus  of 
swine,  the  old  man  defiantly  jumped  an  occasional 
octave,  and  made  the  spiritual  songs  dominate  over 
the  physical.  He  seemed  so  happy  that  his  single 
hired  man  could  not  resist  the  temptation  of  asking 
for  an  increase  of  pay  ;  but  the  sobriety  to  which 
this  interruption  and  its  consequent  refusal  reduced 
Father  Baguss  was  of  only  temporary  duration, 
and  the  broken  strain  was  resumed  with  renewed 
energy.  The  ecstasy  lasted  into  and  through  the 
old  man's  matutinal  repast,  and  manifested  ttself  by 


TWO   SIDES   OF  A   CLOUD.  123 

an  occasional  hum  through  the  good  man's  nose, 
which  did  the  duty  ordinarily  performed  by  a 
mouth  which  was  now  busied  about  other  things  ; 
it  caused  Father  Baguss  to  read  a  glorious  psalm 
as  he  officiated  at  the  family  altar  after  breakfast ; 
it  made  itself  felt  half  way  through  the  set  prayer 
which  the  old  farmer  had  delivered  every  morning 
for  forty  years ;  but  it  seemed  suddenly  to  depart  as 
its  whilom  possessor  uttered  the  petition,  "  May 
we  impart  to  others  of  the  grace  with  which  thou 
hast  visited  us  so  abundantly."  For  the  Tappel- 
mines  had  come  suddenly  into  Father  Baguss's 
mind,  and  as  that  receptacle  was  never  particularly 
crowded,  the  Tappelmines  made  themselves  very 
much  at  home  there.  The  prayer  having  ended, 
the  old  man  loitered  about  the  house  instead  of 
going  directly  to  the  "  clearing,"  in  which  he  had 
been  getting  out  some  oak  fence-rails ;  he  stared 
out  cf  the  window,  walked  up  and  down  the  kitchen 
with  his  hands  in  his  pockets,  lit  a  pipe,  relit  it  half 
a  dozen  times  at  two  minute  intervals,  sighed, 

o 

groaned,  and  at  length  strode  across  the  room  like 
a  bandit  coming  upon  the  boards  of  a  theater, 
seized  his  hat,  and  started  for  the  Tappelmine  domi 
cile. 

4* 


124  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

As  he  plodded  along  over  the  rough  road,  he 
had  two  very  distinct  ideas  in  his  mind :  one  was, 
that  he  hadn't  the  slightest  notion  of  what  to  say 
to  Tappelmine ;  the  other,  and  stronger,  was,  that 
it  would  be  a  relief  to  him  to  discover  that  Tappel 
mine  was  away  from  home,  or  even  sick  in  bed — 
yes,  or  even  drunk.  But  this  hope  was  of  very  short 
duration,  for  soon  the  old  man  heard  the  Tappel 
mine  axe,  and,  as  he  rounded  the  corner  of  the 
miserable  house,  he  saw  Tappelmine  himself — a 
tall,  gaunt  figure  in  faded  homespun,  torn  straw 
hat,  and  a  tangled  thicket  of  muddy-gray  hair. 
The  face  which  Tappelmine  turned,  as  he  heard  the 
approaching  footsteps,  was  not  one  to  warm  the 
heart  of  a  man  inspired  only  by  an  unwelcome  sense 
of  duty;  it  was  thin,  full  of  vagrant  wrinkles;  the 
nose  had  apparently  started  in  different  directions, 
and  each  time  failed  to  return  to  its  original  line  ; 
f ?ie  eyes  were  watery  .and  colorless,  and  the  lips 
were  thin  and  drawn  into  the  form  of  a  jagged  vol 
cano  crater. 

"  The  idee  of  doin'  anything  for  such  !  "  ex 
claimed  Father  Baguss  under  his  breath.  "  O  Lord  ! 
you  put  me  up  to  this  here  job — unless  it  was  all 
Crupp's  work  ;  now  see  me  through  !  "  Then  Tie  said, 


TWO   SIDES   OF  A   CLOUD.  12$ 

"  How  are  you,  neighbor  ?  " 

"  Oh  !  off  an'  on,  'bout  as  usual,"  said  Tappel- 
mine,  with  a  look  which  seemed  to  indicate  that  his 
usual  condition  was  not  one  upon  which  he  was 
particularly  to  be  felicitated. 

"  How'd  your  crop  turn  out?"  asked  Father 
Baguss,  well  knowing  that  "  crop  "  was  a  terribly 
sarcastic  word  to  apply  to  the  acre  or  two  of  badly 
cultivated  corn  which  Tappelmine  had  planted, 
but  yet  feeling  a  frantic  need  of  talking  against 
time. 

"  Well,  not  over'n  above  good,"  said  Tappelmine, 
as  impervious  to  the  innocent  sarcasm  as  he  would 
have  been  to  anything  but  a  bullet  or  a  glass  of 
whiskey.  "  I  dunno  what  would  have  'come  of  us 
ef  I  hadn't  knocked  over  a  couple  of  deer  last  week." 

"  You  might  have  given  a  hint  to  your  neighbors, 
if  worst  had  come  to  worst,"  suggested  Father 
Baguss,  perceiving  a  gleam  of  light,  but  not  so 
delighted  over  it  as  a  moment  or  two  before  he  had 
expected  to  be.  "  Nobody'd  have  stood  by  an* 
seen  you  starve." 

"  Glad  you  told  me,"  said  Tappelmine,  abruptly 
raising  his  axe,  and  starting  two  or  three  large 
chips  in  quick  succession. 


126  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

\ 

The  light  seemed  suddenly  to  be  departing,  and 
Father  Baguss  made  a  frantic  clutch  at  it. 

"  You  needn't  have  waited  to  be  told,"  said  he. 
"  You  know  well  enough  we're  all  human  beiu's 
about  here." 

"  Well,"  said  Tappelmine,  leaning  on  his  axe, 
and  taking  particular  care  not  to  look  into  his  neigh 
bor's  eye,  "  I  used  to  borry  a  little  somethin' — corn, 
mebbe,  or  a  piece  of  meat  once  in  a  while ;  but 
folks  didn't  seem  over  an'  above  glad  to  lend  'em, 
an'  I'm  one  of  the  kind  of  fellows  that  can  take  a 
hint,  I  am." 

"  That  was  'cause  you  never  said  a  word  'bout 
payin'  back — leastways,  you  didn't  at  our  house." 

Tappelmine  did  not  reply,  except  by  looking  sul 
len,  and  Father  Baguss  continued  : 

"  Besides,  it's  kinder  discouragin'  to  lend  to  a  fel 
ler  that  gets  tight  a  good  deal — gets  tight  some 
times,  anyhow  ;  it's  hard  enough  to  get  paid  by  folks 
that  always  keep  straight." 

As  Tappelmine  could  say  nothing  to  controvert 
this  proposition,  he  continued  to  look  sullen,  and 
Father  Baguss,  finding  the  silence  insupportably 
annoying,  said  rather  more  than  he  had  intended  to 
say.  There  are  natures  which,  while  containing 


TWO   SIDES   OF  A   CLOUD.  I2/ 

noble  qualities,  are  most  awkward  expositors  of 
themselves,  and  that  of  Baguss  was  one  of  this 
sort.  Such  people  are  given  to  action  which  is 
open  to  criticism  on  every  side  ;  yet,  in  spite  of 
their  awkwardnesses,  they  find  in  their  weak 
ness  the  source  of  whatever  strength  they  discover 
themselves  to  be  possessed  of.  Father  Baguss  was 
one  of  this  special  division  of  humanity;  but — 
perhaps  for  his  own  good — he  was  unconscious 
of  his  strength  and  painfully  observant  of  his  weak 
ness.  Yet  he  continued  as  follows: 

"  Look  here,  Tappelmine,  I  came  over  here  on 
purpose  to  find  out  if  I  could  do  anything  to  help 
you  get  into  better  habits.  You  don't  amount  to  a 
row  of  pins  as  things  are  now,  and  I  don't  like  it  ; 
it's  throwed  up  to  me,  because  I'm  your  neighbor, 
and  there's  folks  that  stick  to  it  that  /';//  to  blame. 
I  don't  see  how ;  but  if  there's  any  cross  layin* 
around  that  fits  my  shoulders,  I  s'pose  I  ought  to 
pick  it  up  an'  pack  it  along.  Now,  why  in  creation 
don't  you  give  up  drinkin,'  an'  go  to  church,  an' 
make  a  crop,  an'  do  other  things  like  decent  folks 
do  ?  You're  bigger'n  I  am,  an'  stouter,  an'  your 
farm's  as  good  as  mine  if  you'd  only  work  it.  Now 
why  you  don't  do  it,  I  don't  see." 


128  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

"  Don't,  eh?"  snarled  Tappelmine,  dropping  his 
axe,  and  leaning  against  the  house  with  folded 
hands.  "  Well,  'cause  I  hain't  got  any  plow,  nor 
any  harrow,  nor  but  one  hoss,  nor  rails  enough  to 
keep  out  cattle,  nor  seed-corn  or  wheat,  nor  money 
to  buy  it  with,  nor  anything  to  live  on  until  the 
crop's  made,  nor  anything  to  prevent  the  crop 
when  it's  made  from  being  grabbed  by  whoever  I 
owe  money  to  ;  that's  why  I  don't  make  a  crop.  An' 
I  don't  go  to  church,  'cause  I  hain't  got  any  clothes 
excep'  these  'uns  that  I've  got  on,  an'  my  wife's  as 
bad  off  as  /  be.  An'  I  don't  give  up  drinkin', 
'cause  drinkin'  makes  me  feel  good,  an'  the  only 
folks  I  know  that  care  anything  for  me  drink  too. 
You  fellers  that  only  drink  on  the  sly " 

"  I  never  touched  a  drop  in  all  my  life  !  "  roared 
Father  Baguss. 

"  That's  right,"  said  Tappelmine  ;  "  stick  to  it  ; 
there's  some  that'll  believe  that  yarn.  But  what  I 
was  goin'  to  say  was,  folks  that  drink  on  the  sly 
know  it's  comfortin',  an'  I  don't  see  what  they  go 
a-pokin'  up  fellers  that  does  it  fair  an'  square  for." 

Father  Baguss  groaned,  and  some  influence — 
the  old  man  in  later  days  laid  it  upon  the  arch 
enemy  of  souls— suggested  to  him  the  foolishness  of 


TWO    SIDES   OF   A   CLOUD.  I2Q 

naving  gone  into  so  great  an  operation  without  first 
counting  the  cost  ;  hadn't  the  great  Founder  of  the 
old  man's  religious  faith  enjoined  a  counting  of  the 
cost  of  any  enterprise  before  entering  upon  it  ? 
Father  Baguss  wished  that  chapter  of  Holy  Writ 
might  have  met  his  eye  that  morning  at  the  family 
altar ;  but  it  had  not,  and,  worse  yet,  Tappelmine  was 
becoming  wide  awake  and  excited.  It  was  not  what 
the  drunkard  had  said  about  drinking  or  church- 
going  that  troubled  this  would-be  reformer  ;  Tap- 
pelmine's  outline  of  his  material  condition  was 
what  annoyed  Father  Baguss ;  for,  in  spite  of  an 
occasional  attempt  to  mentally  allay  his  fears  by 
falling  back  upon  prayer,  the  incentive  with  which 
he  had  called  upon  Tappelmine  had  taken  strong 
hold  of  his  conscience,  and  persisted  in  making  its 
influence  felt.  Plows  and  prayers,  harrows  and 
hopes,  seed-corn  and  the  seed  sown  by  the  wayside 
mixed  themselves  inextricably  in  his  mind,  as  paral 
lels  often  do  when  men  dream,  or  when  they  are 
confronted  by  an  emergency  beyond  the  control  of 
their  own  intellects.  The  old  man  prayed  silently 
and  earnestly  for  relief,  and  his  prayer  was  answered 
in  a  manner  not  entirely  according  to  his  liking, 
for  he  felt  moved  to  say, 


I3O  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

"/'//lend  you  seed,  if  you'll  go  to  work  an'  put 
it  right  in,  an'  I'll  lend  you  a  plow  and  a  team  to 
break  up  the  ground  with — I  mean,  I'll  hire  'em  to 
you,  an'  agree  to  buy  your  crop  at  rulin'  price,  an* 
pay  you  the  difference  in  cash." 

"That  sounds  somethin'  like,"  remarked  Tappel- 
mine,  thrusting  his  hands  into  his  trowsers'  pockets, 
and  making  other  preparations  for  a  business  talk ; 
"  but,"  he  continued,  "  what  am  I  to  live  on  along 
till  harvest  ?  'Tain't  even  winter  yet."  ~ 

Father  Baguss  groaned,  and  asked,  "  What  was 
you  a-goin'  to  live  on  if  I  hadn't  offered  seed  and 
tools,  Tappelmine?" 

"The  Lord  knows,"  answered  the  never-do-well, 
with  unimpeachable  veracity. 

"  Then,"  said  the  old  farmer,  "  I  guess  he  knows 
what  you'll  do  in  t'other  case.  You  can  work,  I 
reckon,  /hain't  got  much  to  do,  but  you  can  do 
it,  at  whatever  prices  is  goin,'  an*  that'll  help  you 
get  work  of  other  folks  ;  nobody  can  say  I  get  stuck 
on  the  men  I  hire.  So  they're  generally  glad 
enough  to  hire  'em  themselves." 

Tappelmine  did  not  seem  overjoyed  at  his  pros 
pects,  but  he  had  the  grace  to  say  that  they  were 
better  than  he  had  expected.  Father  Baguss*went 


TWO   SIDES  OF  A   CLOUD.  131 

home,  feeling  but  little  more  comfortable  than 
when  he  had  started  on  his  well-intended  mission. 
Tappelmine  sauntered  into  his  own  cabin,  wonder 
ing  how  much  of  the  promised  seed-corn  and  wheat 
he  could  smuggle  into  town  and  trade  for  whiskey ; 
but  he  was  rather  surprised  to  have  his  wife,  a  short, 
thin,  sallow,  uninteresting-looking  woman,  who  had 
been  listening  at  the  broken  window,  approach 
him,  throw  her  arms  about  his  neck,  and  exclaim, 

"  Now,  old  man,  we  can  be  respectable,  can't  we? 
The  chance  has.  been  a  long  time  a-comin',  but  we've 
got  it  now." 

The  surprise  was  too  great  for  Tappelmine,  and 
he  spent  the  remainder  of  the  day  in  nursing  his 
knee  on  the  single  hearthstone  of  his  mansion.  He 
was  not  undisturbed,  however,  and  as  men  of  his 
mental  caliber  hate  persistent  reason  even  worse 
than  they  do  work,  Mrs.  Tappelmine  not  only 
coaxed  her  lord  into  resolving  to  be  respectable, 
but  allowed  that  gentleman  to  persuade  himself 
that  he  had  formed  the  resolution  of  his  own 
accord. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

A  PHENOMENON  IN   EMBRYO. 

THE  superintendency  of  the  Mississippi  Valley 
Woolen  Mills  was  a  position  which  exactly 
suited  Fred  Macdonald,  and  it  gave  him  occasion 
for  the  expenditure  of  whatever  superfluous  energy 
he  found  himself  possessed  of,  yet  it  did  not  engross 
his  entire  attention.  The  faculty  which  the  busiest 
of  young  men  have  for  finding  time  in  which  to 
present  themselves,  well  clothed  and  unbusiness-like, 
to  at  least  one  young  woman,  is  as  remarkable  and 
admirable  as  it  is  inexplicable.  The  evenings  which 
did  not  find  Fred  in  Parson  Wedgewell's  parlor 
were  few  indeed,  and  if,  when  he  was  with  Esther,  he 
did  not  talk  quite  as  sentimentally  as  he  had  done 
in  the  earlier  days  of  his  engagement,  and  if  he 
talked  business  very  frequently,  the  change  did  not 
seem  distasteful  to  the  lady  herself.  For  the  busi 
ness  of  which  he  talked  was,  in  the  main,  of  a  sort 
which  loving  women  have  for  ages  recognized  as  the 
inevitable,  and  to  which  they  have  subjected  t4*em- 


A   PHENOMENON   IN  EMBRYO.  133 

selves  with  a  unanimity  which  deserves  the  grati 
tude  of  all  humanity.  Fred  talked  of  a  cottage 
which  he  might  enter  without  first  knocking  at  the 
door,  and  of  a  partnership  which  should  be  un 
limited  ;  if  he  learned,  in  the  course  of  successive 
conversations,  that  even  in  partnerships  of  the  most 
extreme  order  many  compromises  are  absolutely 
necessary,  the  lesson  was  one  which  improved  his 
character  in  the  ratio  in  which  it  abased  his  pride. 
The  cottage  grew  as  rapidly  as  the  mill,  and  on  his 
returns  from  various  trips  for  machinery  there  came 
with  Fred's  freight  certain  packages  which  prevented 
their  owner  from  appearing  so  completely  the  ab 
sorbed  business  man  which  he  flattered  himself  that 
he  seemed.  Then  the  partnership  was  formed  one 
evening  in  Parson  Wedgewell's  own  church,  in  the 
presence  of  a  host  of  witnesses,  Fred  appearing  as 
self-satisfied  and  radiant  as  the  gainer  in  such  trans 
actions  always  does,  while  Esther's  noble  face  and 
drooping  eyes  showed  beyond  doubt  who  it  was 
that  was  the  giver. 

As  the  weeks  succeeded  each  other  after  the 
wedding,  however,  no  acquaintance  of  the  couple 
could  wonder  whether  the  gainer  or  the  giver  was 
the  happier.  Fred  improved  rapidly,  as  the  school- 


134  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

boy  improves  ;  but  Esther's  graces  were  already  of 
mature  growth,  and  rejoiced  in  their  opportunity 
for  development.  Though  she  could  not  have  ex 
plained  how  it  happened,  she  could  not  but  notice 
that  maidens  regarded  her  wonderingly,  wives  con 
templated  her  wistfully,  frowns  departed  and  smiles 
appeared  when  she  approached  people  who  were 
usually  considered  prosaic.  Yet  shadows  sometimes 
stole  over  her  face,  when  she  looked  at  certain  of 
her  old  acquaintances,  and  the  cause  thereof  soon 
took  a  development  which  was  anything  but  pleas 
ing  to  her  husband. 

"  Fred,"  said  Esther  one  evening,  "  it  makes  me 
real  unhappy  sometimes  to  think  of  the  good  wives 
there  are  who  are  not  as  happy  as  I  am.  I  think 
of  Mrs.  Moshier  and  Mrs.  Crayme,  and  the  only 
reason  that  I  can  see  is,  their  husbands  drink." 

"  I  guess  you're  right,  Ettie,"  said  Fred.  "  They 
didn't  begin  their  domestic  tyranny  in  advance,  as 
you  did — bless  you  for  it." 

"But  why  dorit  their  husbands  stop?"  asked 
Esther,  too  deeply  interested  in  her  subject  to 
notice  her  husband's  compliment.  "  They  must  see 
what  they're  doing,  and  how  cruel  it  all  is." 

"  They're  too  far  gone  to  stop  ;  I  suppose  that's 


A   PHENOMENON  IN  EMBRYO.  135 

the  reason,"  said  Fred.  "  It  hasn't  been  easy  work 
for  me  to  keep  my  promise,  Ettie,  and  I'm  a  young 
man ;  Moshier  and  Crayme  are  middle-aged  men, 
and  liquor  is  simply  necessary  to  them." 

"That  dreadful  old  Bunley  wasn't  too  old  to  re 
form,  it  seems,"  said  Esther.  "  Fred,  I  believe  one 
reason  is  that  no  one  has  asked  them  to  stop.  See 
how  good  Harry  Wainright  has  been  since  he  found 
that  so  many  people  were  interested  in  him  that 
day !  " 

"  Ye es,"  drawled  Fred,  evidently  with  a 

suspicion  of  what  was  coming,  and  trying  to  change 
the  subject  by  suddenly  burying  himself  in  his 
memorandum  book.  But  this  ruse  did  not  succeed, 
for  Esther  crossed  the  room  to  where  Fred  sat, 
placed  her  hands  on  his  shoulders,  and  a  kiss  on  his 
forehead,  and  exclaimed, 

"  Fred,  you're  the  proper  person  to  reform  those 
two  men  ! " 

"  Oh,  Ettie,"  groaned  Fred,  "  you're  entirely  mis 
taken.  Why,  they'd  laugh  right  in  my  face,  if  they 
didn't  get  angry  and  knock  me  down.  Reformers 
want  to  be  older  men,  better  men,  men  like  your 
father,  for  instance,  if  people  are  to  listen  to  them." 

"  Father  says  they  need  to  be  men  who  understand 


136  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

the  nature  of  those  they  are  talking  to./'  replied 
Esther;  "  and  you  once  told  me  that  you  under 
stood  Moshier  and  Crayme  perfectly." 

"  But  just  think  of  what  they  are,  Ettie,"  pleaded 
Fred.  "  Moshier  is  a  contractor,  and  Crayme's  a 
steamboat  captain  ;  suck  men  never  reform,  though 
they  always  are  good  fellows.  Why,  if  I  were  to 
speak  to  either  of  them  on  the  subject,  they'd  laugh 
in  my  face,  or  curse  me.  The  only  way  I  was  able 
to  make  peace  with  them  for  stopping  drinking  my 
self  was  to  say  that  I  did  it  to  please  my  wife." 

"  Did  they  accept  that  as  sufficient  excuse?" 
asked  Esther. 

"  Yes,"  said  Fred  reluctantly,  and  biting  his  lips 
over  this  slip  of  his  tongue. 

"  Then  you've  set  them  a  good  example,  and  I 
can't  believe  its  effect  will  be  lost,"  said  Esther. 

"  I  sincerely  hope  it  won't,"  said  Fred,  very  will 
ing  to  seem  a  reformer  at  heart ;  "  nobody  would  be 
gladder  than  I  to  see  those  fellows  with  wives  as 
happy  as  mine  seems  to  be." 

"  Then  why  don't  you  follow  it  up,  Fred,  dear, 
and  make  sure  of  your  hopes  being  realized  ?  You 
can't  imagine  how  much  happier  /  would  be  if  I 
could  meet  those  dear  women  without  feeling  that  I 


A   PHENOMENON   IN  EMBRYO.  137 

had  to  hide  the  joy  that's  so  hard  to  keep  to  my 
self." 

The  conversation  continued  with  considerable 
strain  to  Fred's  amiability;  but  his  sophistry  was  no 
match  for  his  wife's  earnestness,  and  he  was  finally 
compelled  to  promise  that  he  would  make  an 
appeal  to  Crayme,  with  whom  he  had  a  business 
engagement,  on  the  arrival  of  Crayme's  boat,  the 
Excellence. 

Before  the  whistles  of  the  steamer  were  next  heard, 
however,  Esther  learned  something  of  the  sufferings 
of  would-be  reformers,  and  found  cause  to  wonder 
who  was  to  endure  most  that  Mrs.  Crayme  should 
have  a  sober  husband,  for  Fred  was  alternately 
cross,  moody,  abstracted,  and  inattentive,  and  even 
sullenly  remarked  at  his  breakfast-table  one  morn 
ing  that  he  shouldn't  be  sorry  if  the  Excellence  were 
to  blow  up,  and  leave  Mrs.  Crayme  to  find  her  hap 
piness  in  widowhood.  But  no  such  luck  befell  the 
lady:  the  whistle-signals  of  the  Excellence  were 
again  heard  in  the  river,  and  the  nature  of  Fred's 
business  with  the  captain  made  it  unadvisable  for 
Fred  to  make  an  excuse  for  leaving  the  boat  un- 
visited. 

It  did  seem  to  Fred   Macdonald  as  if  everything 


138  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

conspired  to  make  his  task  as  hard:  as  it  could 
possibly  be.  Crayme  was  already  under  the  influence 
of  more  liquor  than  was  necessary  to  his  well-being, 
and  the  boat  carried  as  passengers  a  couple  of  men, 
who,  though  professional  gamblers,  Crayme  found 
very  jolly  company  when  they  were  not  engaged  in 
their  business  calling.  Besides,  Captain  Crayme  was 
running  against  time  with  an  opposition  boat  which 
had  just  been  put  upon  the  river,  and  he  appre 
ciated  the  necessity  of  having  the  boat's  bar  well 
stocked  and  freely  opened  to  whoever  along  the 
river  was  influential  in  making  or  marring  the  repu 
tation  of  steamboats.  Fred  finally  got  the  captain 
into  his  own  room,  however,  and  made  a  freight 
contract  so  absent-mindedly  that  the  sagacious 
captain  gained  an  immense  advantage  over  him  ; 
then  he  acted  so  awkwardly,  and  looked  so  pale, 
that  the  captain  suggested  chills,  and  prescribed 
brandy.  Fred  smiled  feebly,  and  replied, 

"  No,  thank  you,  Sam  ;  brandy's  at  the  bottom 
of  the  trouble.  I  " — here  Fred  made  a  tremendous 
attempt  to  rally  himself— "  I  want  you  to  swear  off, 
Sam." 

The  astonishment  of  Captain  Crayme  wasynarked 
enough  to  be  alarming  at  first ;  then  the  ludicrous 


A  PHENOMENON  IN   EMBRYO.  139 

feature  of  Fred's  request  struck  him  so  forcibly 
that  he  burst  into  a  laugh  before  whose  great 
ness  Fred  trembled  and  shrank. 

"  Well,  by  thunder ! "  exclaimed  the  captain, 
when  he  recovered  his  breath ;  "  if  that  isn't  the 
best  thing  I  ever  heard  yet !  The  idea  of  a  steam 
boat  captain  swearing  off  his  whiskey !  Say,  Fred, 
don't  you  want  me  to  join  the  church  ?  I  forgot 
that  you'd  married  a  preacher's  daughter,  or  I 
wouldn't  have  been  so  puzzled  over  your  white 
face  to-day.  Sam  Crayme  brought  down  to  cold 
water !  Wouldn't  the  boys  along  the  river  get 
up  a  sweet  lot  of  names  for  me — the  *  Cold-water 
Captain/  '  Psalm-singing  Sammy  ' !  and  then,  when 
an  editor  or  any  other  visitor  came  aboard,  wouldn't 
I  look  the  thing,  hauling  out  glasses  and  a  pitcher 
of  water !  Say,  Fred,  does  your  wife  let  you  drink 
tea  and  coffee  ?  " 

"  Sam  !  "  exclaimed  Fred,  springing  to  his  feet, 
"  if  you  don't  stop  slanting  at  my  wife,  I'll  knock 
you  down." 

"Good!"  said  the  captain,  without  exhibiting 
any  signs  of  trepidation.  "  Now  you  tcilk  like  your 
self  again.  I  beg  your  pardon,  old  fellow;  you 
know  I  was  only  joking,  but  it  is  too  funny.  You'll 


140  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

have  to  take  a  trip  or  two  with  me  again,  though, 
and  be  reformed." 

"  Not  any,"  said  Fred,  resuming  his  chair;  "take 
your  wife  along,  and  reform  yourself." 

"  Look  here,  now,  young  man,"  said  the  captain, 
"you're  cracking  on  too  much  steam.  Honestly, 
Fred,  I've  kept  a  sharp  eye  on  you  for  two  or  three 
months,  and  I  am  right  glad  you  can  let  whiskey- 
alone.  I've  seen  times  when  I  wished  I  were  in 
your  boots  ;  but  steamboats  can't  be  run  without 
liquor,  however  it  may  be  with  woolen  mills." 

''That's  all  nonsense,"  said  Fred.  "You  get 
trade  because  you  run  your  boat  on  time,  charge 
fair  prices,  and  deliver  your  freight  in  good  order. 
Who  gives  you  business  because  you  drink  and 
treat  ?  " 

The  captain,  being  unable  to  recall  any  shipper 
of  the  class  alluded  to  by  Fred,  changed  his  course. 

"  'Tisn't  so  much  that,"  said  he  ;  "  it's  a  question 
of  reputation.  How  would  I  feel  to  go  ashore  at 
Pittsburg  or  Louisville  or  Cincinnati,  and  refuse 
to  drink  with  anybody  ?  Why,  'twould  ruin  me. 
It's  different  with  you  who  don't  have  to  meet  any 
body  but  religious  old  farmers.  Besides,  yoWve  just 
been  married." 


A   PHENOMENON   IN   EMBRYO.  14! 

"  And  you've  been  married  for  five  years,"  said 
Fred,  with  a  sudden  sense  of  help  at  hand.  "  How 
do  you  suppose  your  wife  feels?" 

Captain  Crayme's  jollity  subsided  a  little,  but  with 
only  a  little  hesitation  he  replied, 

"  Oh  !  she's  used  to  it ;  she  doesn't  mind  it." 

'  You're  the  only  person  in  town  that  thinks  so, 
Sam,"  said  Fred. 

Captain  Crayme  got  up  and  paced  his  little  state 
room  two  or  three  times,  with  a  face  full  of  uncer 
tainty.  At  last  he  replied, 

"  Well,  between  old  friends,  Fred,  I  don't  think 
so  very  strongly  myself.  Hang  it  !  I  wish  I'd 
been  brought  up  a  preacher,  or  something  of  the 
kind,  so  I  wouldn't  have  had  business  ruining  my 
chances  of  being  the  right  sort  o/  a  family  man. 
Emily  dorit  like  my  drinking,  and  I've  promised 
to  look  up  some  other  business  ;  but  'tisn't  easy  to 
get  out  of  steamboating  when  you've  got  a  good 
boat  and  a  first-rate  trade.  Once  she  felt  so  awfully 
about  it  that  I  did  swear  off — don't  tell  anybody, 
for  God's  sake  !  but  I  did.  I  had  to  look  out  for  my 
character  along  the  river,  though  ;  so  I  swore  off  on 
the  sly,  and  played  sick.  I'd  give  my  orders  to  the 
mates  and  clerks  from  my  bed  in  here,  and  then  I'd 


142  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

lock  myself  in,  and  read  novels  and  the  Bible  to 
keep  from  thinking.  'Twas  awful  dry  work  all 
around  ;  but  '  whole  hog  or  none '  is  my  style,  you 
know.  There  was  fun  in  it,  though,  to  think  of 
doing  something  that  no  other  captain  on  the  river 
ever  did.  But,  thunder!  by  the  time  night  came,  I 
was  so  tired  of  loafing  that  I  wrapped  a  blanket 
around  my  head  and  shoulders,  like  a  Hoosier, 
sneaked  out  the  outer  door  here,  and  walked  the 
guards,  between  towns  ;  but  I  was  so  frightened  for 
fear  some  one  would  know  me  that  the  walk  did  me 
more  harm  than  good.  And  blue  !  why  a  whole 
cargo  of  indigo  would  have  looked  like  a  snow-storm 
alongside  of  my  feelings  the  second  day ;  'pon  my 
word,  Fred,  I  caught  myself  crying  in  the  afternoon, 
just  before  dark,  and  I  couldn't  find  out  what  for 
either.  I  tell  you,  I  was  scared,  and  things  got 
worse  as  time  spun  along  ;  the  dreams  I  had  that 
night  made  me  howl,  and  I  felt  worse  yet  when 
daylight  came  along  again.  Toward  the  next  night 
I  was  just  afraid  to  go  to  sleep  ;  so  I  made  up  my 
mind  to  get  well,  go  on  duty,  and  dodge  everybody 
that  it  seemed  I  ought  to  drink  with.  Why,  the 
Lord  bless  your  soul !  the  first  time  we  shm^ed  off 
from  a  town,  I  walked  up  to  the  bar,  just  as  I  always 


A   PHENOMENON   IN   EMBRYO.  143 

did  after  leaving  towns ;  the  barkeeper  set  out  my 
particular  bottle  naturally  enough,  knowing  nothing 
about  my  little  game  ;  I  poured  my  couple  of  fingers, 
and  dropped  it  down  as  innocent  as  a  lamb  before 
I  knew  what  I  was  doing.  By  George !  my  boy, 
'twas  like  opening  lock-gates;  I  was  just  heavenly 
gay  before  morning.  There  was  one  good  thing 
about  it,  though — I  never  told  Emily  I  was  going 
to  swear  off;  I  was  going  to  surprise  her,  so  I  had 
the  disappointment  all  to  myself.  Maybe  she  isn't 
as  happy  as  your  wife  ;  but,  whatever  else  I've  done, 
or  not  done,  I've  never  lied  to  her." 

"  It's  a  pity  you  hadn't  promised  her  then,  before 
you  tried  your  experiment,"  said  Fred.  The  captain 
shook  his  head  gravely  and  replied, 

"I  guess  not;  why,  I'd  have  either  killed  some 
body  or  killed  myself  if  I'd  gone  on  a  day  or  two 
longer.  I  s'pose  I'd  have  got  along  better  if  I'd  had 
anybody  to  keep  me  company,  or  reason  with  me 
like  a  schoolmaster  ;  but  I  hadn't ;  I  didn't  know 
anybody  that  I  dared  trust  with  a  secret  like  that." 

"  /  hadn't  reformed  then,  eh?"  queried  Fred. 

"You?  why  you're  one  of  the  very  fellows  I 
dodged !  Just  as  I  got  aboard  the  boat — I  came 
down  late,  on  purpose — I  saw  you  out  aft.  I  tell 


144  THE  BARTON  EXPERIMENT. 

you,  I  was  under  my  blankets,  with  a  towel 
wrapped  around  my  jaw,  in  about  one  minute,  and 
was  just  a-praying  that  you  hadn't  seen  me  come 
aboard." 

Fred  laughed,  but  his  laughter  soon  made  place 
for  a  look  of  tender  solicitude.  The  unexpected 
turn  that  had  been  reached  in  the  conversation  he 
had  so  dreaded,  and  the  sympathy  which  had  been 
awakened  in  him  by  Crayme's  confidence  and  open 
ness,  temporarily  made  of  Fred  Macdonald  a  man 
with  whom  Fred  himself  had  never  before  been 
acquainted.  A  sudden  idea  struck  him. 

"  Sam,"  said  he,  "  try  it  over  again,  and  /'//  stay 
by  you.     I'll  nurse  you,  crack  jokes,  fight  off  the 
blues  for  you,  keep   your  friends  away.     I'll  even 
break  your  neck  for  you,  if  you  like,  seeing  it's  you 
if  it'll  keep  you  straight." 

"Will  you,  though?"  said  the  captain,  with  a 
look  of  admiration  undisguised,  except  by  wonder. 
"  You're  the  first  friend  I  ever  had,  then.  By 
thunder !  how  marrying  Ettie  Wedgewell  did  im 
prove  you,  Fred !  But,"  and  the  captain's  face 
lengthened  again,  "  there's  a  fellow's  reputation  to 
be  considered,  and  where'll  mine  be  after  it  gets 
around  that  I've  sworn  off?" 


A   PHENOMENON   IN   EMBRYO.  145 

"  Reputation  be  hanged  !  "  exclaimed  Fred. 
"  Lose  it,  for  your  wife's  sake.  Besides,  you'll  make 
reputation  instead  of  lose  it :  you'll  be  as  famous 
as  the  Red  River  Raft,  or  the  Mammoth  Cave — the 
only  thing  of  the  kind  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  As 
for  the  boys,  tell  them  I've  bet  you  a  hundred  that 
you  can't  stay  off  your  liquor  for  a  year,  and  that 
you're  not  the  man  to  take  a  dare." 

"  That  sounds  like  business,"  exclaimed  the  cap 
tain,  springing  to  his  feet. 

"  Let  me  draw  up  a  pledge,"  said  Fred  eagerly, 
drawing  pen  and  ink  toward  him. 

"  No,  you  don't,  my  boy,"  said  the  captain  gently, 
and  pushing  Fred  out  of  the  room  and  upon  the 
guards.  "  Emily  shall  do  that.  Below  there! — 
Perkins,  I've  got  to  go  up  town  for  an  hour ;  see 
if  you  can't  pick  up  freight  to  pay  laying-up  ex 
penses  somehow.  Fred,  go  home  and  get  your 
traps ;  '  now's  the  accepted  time,'  as  your  father-in- 
law  has  dinged  at  me,  many  a  Sunday,  from  the 
pulpit." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

SAILING  UP   STREAM. 

A  S  Sam  Crayme  strode  toward  the  body  of  the 
•**•  town,  his  business  instincts  took  strong  hold  of 
his  sentiments,  in  the  manner  natural  alike  to  saints 
and  sinners,  and  he  laid  a  plan  of  operations  against 
whiskey  which  was  characterized  by  the  apparent 
recklessness  but  actual  prudence  which  makes  for 
glory  in  steamboat  captains,  as  it  does  in  army 
commanders.  As  was  his  custom  in  business,  he 
first  drove  at  full  speed  upon  the  greatest  obstacles  ; 
so  it  came  to  pass  that  he  burst  into  his  own  house, 
threw  his  arm  around  his  wife  with  more  than  ordi 
nary  tenderness,  and  then  looking  into  her  eyes 
with  the  daring  born  of  utter  desperation,  said, 

"  Emily,  I  came  back  to  sign  the  strongest  tem 
perance  pledge  that  you  can  possibly  draw  up ; 
Fred  Macdonald  wanted  to  write  out  one,  but  I 
told  him  that  nobody  but  you  should  do  it ;  you've 
earned  the  right  to,  poor  girl."  No  such  dujy  and 
surprise  having  ever  before  come  hand  in  hand  to 


SAILING   UP   STREAM.  147 

Mrs.  Crayme,  she  acted  as  every  true  woman  will 
imagine  that  she  herself  would  have  done  under 
similar  circumstances,  and  this  action  made  it  not 
so  easy  as  it  might  otherwise  have  been  to  see  just 
where  the  pen  and  ink  were,  or  to  prevent  the  pre 
cious  document,  when  completed,  from  being  dis 
figured  by  peculiar  blots  which  were  neither  finger 
marks  nor  ink-spots,  yet  which  in  shape  and  size 
suggested  both  of  these  indications  of  unneatness. 
Mrs.  Crayme  was  not  an  adept  at  literary  compo 
sition,  and,  being  conscious  of  her  own  deficiencies, 
she  begged  that  a  verbal  pledge  might  be  substi 
tuted  ;  but  her  husband  was  firm. 

"  A  contract  don't  steer  worth  a  cent  unless  it's 
in  writing,  Emily,"  said  he,  looking  over  his  wife's 
shoulder  as  she  wrote.  "  Gracious,  girl,  you're 
making  it  too  thin  ;  any  greenhorn  could  sail  right 
through  that  and  all  around  it.  Here,  let  vie 
have  it."  And  Crayme  wrote,  dictating  aloud  to 
himself  as  he  did  so,  "And  the — party — of  the  first 
part — hereby  agrees  to — do  everything — else  that 
the — spirit  of  this — agreement — seems  to  the  party 
— of  the  second — part  to — indicate  or — imply." 
This  he  read  over  to  his  wife,  saying, 

"  That's  the  way  we  fix  contracts  that  aren't  ship- 


148  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

shape,  Emily  ;  a  steamboat  couldn't  be  run  in  any 
other  way."  Then  Crayme  wrote  at  the  foot  of 
thepaper,  "Sam.  Crayme,  Capt.  Str.  Excellence"  sur 
veyed  the  document  with  evident  pride,  and  handed 
it  to  his  wife,  saying, 

"  Now,  you  see,  you've  got  me  so  I  can't  ever 
get  out  of  it  by  trying  to  make  out  that  'twas  some 
other  Sam  Crayme  that  you  reformed." 

"  O  husband  !  "  said  Mrs.  Crayme,  throwing 
her  arms  about  the  captain's  neck,  "  dorit  talk  in 
that  dreadful  business  way !  I'm  too  happy  to 
bear  it.  I  want  to  go  with  you  on  this  trip." 

The  captain  shrank  away  from  his  wife's  arms, 
and  a  cold  perspiration  started  all  over  him  as  he 
exclaimed, 

"  Oh,  don't,  little  girl !  Wait  till  next  trip. 
There's  an  unpleasant  set  of  passengers  aboard  ; 
the  barometer  points  to  rainy  weather,  so  you'd 
have  to  stay  in  the  cabin  all  the  time  ;  our  cook  is 
sick,  and  his  cubs  serve  up  the  most  infernal  messes  ; 
we're  light  of  freight,  and  have  got  to  stop  at  every 
warehouse  on  the  river,  and  the  old  boat'll  be  either 
shrieking,  or  bumping,  or  blowing  off  steam  the 
whole  continual  time." 

Mrs.   Crayme's  happiness   had  been  frightening 


SAILING   UP   STREAM.  149 

some  of  her  years  away,  and  her  smile  carried  Sam 
himself  back  to  his  pre-marital  period  as  she  said, 

"  Never  mind  the  rest ;  I  see  you  don't  want  me 
to  go,"  and  then  she  became  Mrs.  Crayme  again  as 
she  said,  pressing  her  face  closely  to  her  husband's 
breast,  "  but  I  hope  you  won't  get  any  freight,  any 
where,  so  you  can  get  home  all  the  sooner." 

Then  the  captain  called  on  Dr.  White,  and  an 
nounced  such  a  collection  of  symptoms  that  the 
doctor  grew  alarmed,  insisted  on  absolute  quiet, 
conveyed  Crayme  in  his  own  carriage  to  the  boat, 
saw  him  into  his  berth,  and  gave  to  Fred  Macdonald 
a*  multitude  of  directions  and  cautions,  the  sober 
recording  of  which  upon  paper  was  of  great  service 
in  saving  Fred  from  suffering  over  the  Quixotic 
aspect  which  the  whole  project  had  begun,  in  his 
mind,  to  take  on.  He  felt  ashamed  even  to  look 
squarely  into  Crayme's  eye,  and  his  mind  was 
greatly  relieved  when  the  captain  turned  his  face  to 
the  wall  and  exclaimed, 

"  Fred,  for  goodness'  sake  get  out  of  here  ;  I  feel 
enough  like  a  baby  now,  without  having  a  nurse 
alongside.  I'll  do  well  enough  for  a  few  hours; 
just  look  in  once  in  a  while." 

During  the  first  day  of  the  trip,  Crayme  made  no 


I5O  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

trouble  for  himself  or  Fred:  under  the  friendly 
shelter  of  night,  the  two  men  had  a  two-hour  chat 
which  was  alternately  humorous,  business-like,  and 
retrospective,  and  then  Crayme  fell  asleep.  The 
next  day  was  reasonably  pleasant  out  of  doors,  so 
the  captain  wrapped  himself  in  a  blanket  and  sat  in 
an  extension-chair  on  the  guards,  where  with  solemn 
face  he  received  some  condolences  which  went  far  to 
keep  him  in  good  humor  after  the  sympathizers  had 
departed.  On  the  second  night  the  captain  was 
restless,  and  the  two  men  played  cards.  On  the 
third  day  the  captain's  physique  reached  the  bot 
tom  of  its  stock  of  patience,  and  protested  indig 
nantly  at  the  withdrawal  of  its  customary  stimu 
lus  ;  and  it  acted  with  more  consistency,  though 
no  less  ugliness,  than  the  human  mind  does  when 
under  excitement  and  destitute  of  control.  The 
captain  grew  terribly  despondent,  and  Fred  found 
ample  use  for  all  the  good  stories  he  knew.  Some 
of  these  amused  the  captain  greatly,  but  after  one 
of  them  he  sighed, 

"  Poor  old  Billy  Hockess  told  me  that  the  only 
time  I  ever  heard  it  before,  and  didrit  we.  have  a 
glorious  time  that  night!  He'd  just  put  all  his 
money  into  the  Yenesei — that  blew  up  and  took  him 


SAILING   UP   STREAM.  15! 

with  it  only  a  year  afterward — and  he  gave  us  anew 
kind  of  punch  he'd  got  the  hang  of  when  he  went 
East  for  the  boat's  carpets.  'Twas  made  of  two 
bottles  of  brandy,  one  whiskey,  two  rum,  one  gin, 
two  sherry,  and  four  claret,  with  guava  jelly,  and 
lemon  peel  that  had  been  soaking  in  curac.oa  and 
honey  for  a  month.  It  looks  kind  of  weak  when 
you  think  about  it,  but  there  were  only  six  of  us  in 
the  part)',  and  it  went  to  the  spot  by  the  time  we 
got  through.  Golly,  but  didn't  we  make  Rome  howl 
that  night !  " 

Fred  shuddered,  and  experimented  upon  his  friend 
with  song;  he  was  rewarded  by  hearing  the  cap 
tain  hum  an  occasional  accompaniment ;  but,  as  Fred 
got  fairly  into  a  merry  Irish  song  about  one  Terry 
O'Rann,  and  uttered  the  lines  in  which  the  poet 
states  that  the  hero 

"  — took  whiskey  punch 
Ivery  night  for  his  lunch," 

the  captain  put  such  a  world  of  expression  into 
a  long-drawn  sigh  that  Fred  began  to  feel  depressed 
himself;  besides,  songs  were  not  numerous  in  Fred's 
repertoire,  and  those  in  which  there  was  no  allu 
sion  to  drinking  could  be  counted  on  half  his  fin 
gers.  Then  he  borrowed  the  bar-keeper's  violin,  and 
3* 


152  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

played,  one  after  another,  the  airs  which  had  been 
his  favorites  in  the  days  of  his  courtship,  until 
Crayme  exclaimed, 

"  Say,  Fred,  we're  not  playing  church  ;  give  us 
something  that  don't  bring  all  of  a  fellow  s  dead 
friends  along  with  it." 

Fred  reddened,  swung  his  bow  viciously,  and 
dashed  into  "  Natchez  Under  the  Hill,"  an  old  air 
which  would  have  delighted  Offenbach,  but  which 
will  never  appear  in  a  collection  of  classical  music. 

"Ah!  that's  something  like  music,"  exclaimed 
Captain  Crayme,  as  Fred  paused  suddenly  to  repair 
a  broken  string.  "  I  never  hear  that  but  I  think  of 
Wesley  Treepoke,  that  used  to  run  the  Quitman; 
went  afterward  to  the  Rising  Planet,  when  the 
Quitman's  owners  put  her  on  a  new  line  as  an 
opposition  boat.  Wess  and  I  used  to  work  things 
so  as  to  make  Louisville  at  the  same  time — he  going 
up,  I  going  down,  and  then  turn  about — and  we 
always  had  a  glorious  night  of  it,  with  one  or  two 
other  lively  boys  that  we'd  pick  up.  And  Wess  had 
a  fireman  that  could  fiddle  off  old  '  Natchez '  in  a 
way  that  would  just  make  a  corpse  dance  till  its 
teeth  rattled,  and  that  fireman  would  always  be 
called  in  just  as  we'd  got  to  the  place  where  you 


SAILING   UP   STREAM.  153 

can't  tell  what  sort  of  whiskey  'tis  you're  drinking, 
and  I  tell  you,  'twas  so  heavenly  that  a  fellow  could 
forgive  the  last  boat  that  beat  him  on  the  river, 
or  stole  a  landing  from  him.  And  such  whiskey 
as  Wess  kept !  used  to  go  cruising  around  the  back 
country,  sampling  little  lots  run  out  of  private 
stills.  He'd  always  find  nectar,  you'd  better  be 
lieve.  Poor  old  boy!  the  tremens  took  him  off  at 
last.  He  hove  his  pilot  overboard  just  before  he 
died,  and  put  a  bullet  into  Pete  Langston,  his  sec 
ond  clerk — they  were  both  trying  to  hold  him,  you 
see — but  they  never  laid  it  up  against  him.  I  wish 
I  knew  what  became  of  the  whiskey  he  had  on  hand 
when  he  walked  off — no,  I  don't,  either;  what  am  I 
thinking  about?  But  I  do,  though — hanged  if  I 
don't!" 

Fred  grew  pale  :  he  had  heard  of  drunkards  grow 
ing  delirious  upon  ceasing  to  drink ;  he  had  heard  of 
men  who,  in  periods  of  aberration,  were  impelled 
by  the  motive  of  the  last  act  or  recollection  which 
strongly  impressed  them ;  what  if  the  captain 
should  suddenly  become  delirious,  and  try  to  throw 
him  overboard  or  shoot  him  ?  Fred  determined  to 
get  the  captain  at  once  upon  the  guards — no,  into 
the  cabin,  where  there  would  be  no  sight  of  water 


154  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

to  suggest  anything  dreadful — and  search  his  room 
for  pistols.  But  the  captain  objected  to  being  moved 
into  the  cabin. 

"The  boys,"  said  the  captain,  alluding  to  the 
gamblers,  "  are  mighty  sharp  in  the  eye,  and  like 
as  not  they'd  see  through  my  little  game,  and  then 
where'd  my  reputation  be  ?  Speaking  of  the  boys 
reminds  me  of  Harry  Genang,  that  cleaned  out  that 
rich  Kentucky  planter  at  bluff  one  night,  and  then 
swore  off  gambling  for  life  and  gave  a  good-by  sup 
per  aboard  the  boat.  'Twas  just  at  the  time  when 
Prince  Imperial  Champagne  came  out,  and  the 
whole  supper  was  made  of  that  splendid  stuff.  I 
guess  I  must  have  put  away  four  bottles,  and  if  I'd 
known  how  much  he'd  ordered,  I  could  have  carried 
away  a  couple  more.  I've  always  been  sorry  I 
didn't." 

Fred  wondered  if  there  was  any  subject  of  con 
versation  which  would  not  suggest  liquor  to  the 
captain  ;  he  even  brought  himself  to  ask  if  Crayme 
had  seen  the  new  Methodist  Church  at  Barton  since 
it  had  been  finished. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  the  captain ;  "  I  started  to  walk 
Moshier  home  one  night,  after  we'd  punished  a 
couple  of  bottles  of  old  Crow  whiskey  at  our  house, 


SAILING   UP  STREAM.  155 

and  he  caved  in  all  of  a  sudden,  and  I  laid  him  out 
on  the  steps  of  that  very  church  till  I  could  get  a 
carriage.  Those  were  my  last  two  bottles  of  Crow, 
too  ;  it's  too  bad  the  way  the  good  things  of  this 
life  paddle  off." 

The  captain  raised  himself  in  his  berth,  sat  on  the 
edge  thereof,  stood  up,  stared  out  the  window,  and 
began  to  pace  his  room  with  his  head  down  and  his 
hands  behind  his  back.  Little  by  little  he  raised 
his  head,  dropped  his  hands,  flung  himself  into  a 
chair,  beat  the  devil's  tattoo  on  the  table,  sprang 
up  excitedly,  and  exclaimed, 

"  I'm  going  back  on  all  the  good  times  I  ever 
had." 

"  You're  only  getting  ready  to  try  a  new  kind, 
Sam,"  said  Fred. 

"  Well  I'm  going  back  on  my  friends." 

"  Not  on  all  of  them  ;  the  dead  ones  would  pat 
you  on  the  back,  if  they  got  a  chance." 

"  A  world  without  whiskey  looks  infernally  dis 
mal  to  a  fellow  that  isn't  half  done  living." 

"  It  looks  first-rate  to  a  fellow  that  hasn't  got 
any  back-down  in  him." 

"  Curse  you !  I  wish  I'd  made  you  back  down 
when  you  first  talked  temperance  to  me." 


156  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

"  Go  ahead  !  Then  curse  your  wife — don't  be 
afraid  ;  you've  been  doing  it  ever  since  you  mar 
ked  her." 

Crayme  flew  at  Macdonald's  throat ;  the  younger 
man  grappled  the  captain  and  threw  him  into  his 
bunk.  The  captain  struggled  and  glared  like  a 
tiger ;  Fred  gasped,  between  the  special  efforts  dic 
tated  by  self-preservation, 

"  Sam,  I — promised  to — to  see  you — through — • 
and  I'm — going  to — do  it,  if — if  I  have  to — break 
your  neck." 

The  captain  made  one  tremendous  effort ;  Fred 
braced  one  foot  against  the  table,  put  a  knee  on  the 
captain's  breast,  held  both  the  captain's  wrists 
tightly,  looked  full  into  the  captain's  eyes,  and 
breathed  a  small  prayer — for  his  own  safety.  For 
a  moment  or  two,  perhaps  longer,  the  captain 
strained  violently,  and  then  relaxed  all  effort  and 
cried, 

"  Fred,  you've  whipped  me  !  " 

"  Nonsense !  whip  yourself,"  exclaimed  Fred, 
"  if  you're  going  to  stop  drinking.'' 

The  captain  turned  his  face  to  the  wall  and  said 
nothing  ;  but  he  seemed  to  be  so  persistently  swal 
lowing  something  that  Fred  suspected  a  secreted 


SAILING   UP   STREAM.  157 

bottle,  and  moved  an  investigation  so  suddenly 
that  the  captain  had  not  time  in  which  to  wipe  his 
eyes. 

"  Hang  it,  Fred,"  said  he,  rather  brokenly;  "  how 
can  what's  babyish  in  men  whip  a  full-grown  steam 
boat  captain  ?" 

"  The  same  way  that  it  whipped  a  full-grown 
woolen-mill  manager  once,  I  suppose,  old  boy,"  said 
Macdonald. 

"Is  that  so?  "  exclaimed  the  captain,  astonish 
ment  getting  so  sudden  an  advantage  over  shame 
that  he  turned  over  and  looked  his  companion  in 
the  face.  "  Why — how  are  you,  Fred  ?  I  feel  as  if 
I  was  just  being  introduced.  Didn't  anybody  else 
help  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Fred,  "  a  woman  ;  but — you've  got  a 
wife,  too." 

Crayme  fell  back  on  his  pillow  and  sighed.  "  If 
I  could  only  think  about  her,  Fred  !  But  I  can't ; 
whiskey's  the  only  thing  that  comes  into  my 
mind." 

"Can't  think  about  her !  "  exclaimed  Fred;  "why, 
are  you  acquainted  with  her  yet,  I  wonder  ?  /'// 
never  forget  the  evening  you  were  "married." 

"  That  was  jolly,  wasn't  it  ?  "  said  Crayme.     "  I'll 


THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 


bet  such  sherry  was  never  opened  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  before  or  -  " 

"  Hang  your  sherry  !  "  roared  Fred  ;  "  it's  your 
wife  that  I  remember.  You  couldn't  see  her,  of 
course,  for  you  were  standing  alongside  of  her  ;  but 
the  rest  of  us  —  well,  I  wished  myself  in  your  place, 
that's  all." 

"  Did  you,  though  ?  "  said  Crayme,  with  a  smile 
which  seemed  rather  proud  ;  "  well,  I  guess  old 
Major  Pike  did  too,  for  he  drank  to  her  about 
twenty  times  that  evening.  Let's  see  ;  she  wore  a 
white  moire  antique,  I  think  they  called  it,  and  it 
cost  twenty-one  dollars  a  dozen,  and  there  was  at 
least  one  broken  bottle  in  every  -  " 

"  And  I  made  up  my  mind  she  was  throwing  her 
self  away,  in  marrying  a  fellow  that  would  be  sure  to 
care  more  for  whiskey  than  he  did  for  her,"  inter 
rupted  Fred. 

"  Ease  off,  Fred,  ease  off  now  ;  there  wasn't  any 
whiskey  there  ;  I  tried  to  get  some  of  the  old  Twin 
Tulip  brand  for  punch,  but  -  " 

"But  the  devil  happened  to  be  asleep,  and  you 
got  a  chance  to  behave  yourself,"  said  Fred. 

Crayme  looked  appealingly.  "  Fred,"  sajd  he, 
'  tell  me  about  her  yourself;  I'll  take  it  as  a  favor." 


SAILING    UP   STREAM.  159 

"Why,  she  looked  like  a  lot  of  lilies  and  roses," 
said  Fred,  "  except  that  you  couldn't  tell  where  one 
left  off  and  the  other  began.  As  she  came  into 
the  room  7  felt  like  getting  down  on  my  knees. 
Old  Bayle  was  telling  me  a  vile  story  just  then,  but 
the  minute  she  came  in  he  stopped  as  if  he  was 
shot." 

"  He  wouldn't  drink  a  drop  that  evening,"  said 
Crayme,  "  and  I've  puzzled  my  wits  over  that  for 
five  years  " 

"  She  looked  so  proud  of  you"  interrupted  Fred 
with  some  impatience. 

"  Did  she  ?  "  asked  Crayme.  "  Well,  I  guess  I 
was  a  good-looking  fellow  in  those  days :  I  know 
Pike  came  up  to  me  once,  with  a  glass  in  his  hand, 
and  said  that  he  ought  to  drink  to  met  for  I  was  the 
finest-looking  groom  he'd  ever  seen.  He  was  so 
tight,  though,  that  he  couldn't  hold  his  glass  steady; 
and  though  you  know  I  never  had  a  drop  of  stingy 
blood  in  me,  it  did  go  to  my  heart  to  see  him  spill 
that  gorgeous  sherry." 

"  She  looked  very  proud  of  you"  Fred  repeated  ; 
"  but  I  can't  see  why,  for  I've  never  seen  her  do  it 
since." 

"  You  will,  though,  hang  you  ! "  exclaimed  the 


l6o  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

captain.  "  Get  out  of  here  !  I  can  think  about  her 
now,  and  I  don't  want  anybody  else  around.  No 
rudeness  meant,  you  know,  Fred." 

Fred  Macdonald  retired  quietly,  taking  with  him 
the  keys  of  both  doors,  and  feeling  more  exhausted 
than  he  had  been  on  any  Saturday  night  since  the 
building  of  the  mill. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

A   FIRST   INWARD    PEEP. 

AMONG  the  Barton  people  who  had  actually 
made  any  effort  for  the  sake  of  temperance, 
no  one  found  greater  comfort  in  contemplative 
retrospects  of  his  own  work  than  Deacon  Jones. 
True,  his  contributions  to  the  various  funds  which 
Crupp,  Tomple,  Wedgewell,  and  Brown  devised  had 
not  been  as  great  as  had  been  expected  of  him  ;  nor 
had  such  moneys  as  he  finally  gave  been  obtained 
from  him  without  an  amount  of  effort  which  Crupp 
declared  sufficient  to  effect  the  extraction,  from  the 
soil,  of  the  stump  of  a  centenarian  oak  ;  but  when 
the  money  had  left  his  pocket,  and  was  absolutely 
beyond  recall,  the  deacon  made  the  most  he  could 
out  of  it  by  the  only  method  which  remained.  His 
contributions  gave  him  an  excuse  for  talk  and  ex 
hortation,  and,  next  to  money-making,  there  \\as 
no  operation  which  the  deacon  enjoyed  as  much  as 
that  of  exhorting  others  to  good  deeds.  Until 
there  broke  out  in  Barton  the  temperance  excite- 


1 62  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

ment  alluded  to  in  our  first  chapter,  Deacon  Jones's 
hortatory  efforts  had  been  principally  of  a  religious 
nature ;  he  believed  in  religion,  and  he  occasionally 
extracted  enjoyment  from  it ;  besides,  his  thrifty 
soul  had  always  been  profoundly  moved  by  the  busi 
ness-like  nature  of  the  Scripture  passage,  "  Whoso 
shall  convert  a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  ways, 
shall  save  a  soul  from  death  and  cover  a  multitude 
of  sins."  Many  had  been  the  unregenerate  in  Bar 
ton  with  whom  the  deacon  had  labored,  generally 
with  considerable  tact,  as  to  occasion  and  language, 
and  sometimes  with  success.  His  orthodoxy  was 
acceptable  to  every  pastor  in  the  village,  for  he  was 
an  extreme  believer  in  every  religious  tenet  which 
either  pastor  declared  necessary  to  salvation  ;  and 
his  frequent  inability  to  reconcile  such  of  these 
ideas  as  conflicted  with  each  other  only  led  the 
ministers  to  accord  new  admiration  to  a  faith  which 
was  appalled  by  nothing.  Up  to  the  time  when 
he  took  active  part  in  the  temperance  movement, 
one  of  his  favorite  injunctions  had  been,  "  Lay  up 
your  treasure  in  heaven  ;  "  when,  however,  he  found 
himself  suddenly  and  frequently  called  upon  for 
contributions,  he  dropped  this  injunction  in  favor 
of  that  one  which  reads,  "  Give  to  him  that  ask- 


A   FIRST   INWARD   PEEP.  163 

eth  of  thee."  It  had  been  a  matter  of  consider 
able  sorrow  to  the  deacon  that  his  first  knowledge 
of  this  passage  had  been  derived  from  St.  Luke 
instead  of  St.  Matthew,  and  that  he  had  many  times 
been  compelled  to  say  "  Give  to  every  man"  etc., 
which  quotation  had  reacted  upon  him  in  a  manner 
which  caused  him  to  quote  to  himself,  "  Many  are 
the  afflictions  of  the  righteous,"  and  to  suffer  some 
terrible  flounderings  in  the  twin  pits  of  logic  and 
casuistry;  but  when  he  corrected  himself  according 
to  Matthew,  his  heart  was  gladdened,  and  his  re 
straint  removed.  The  old  man  talked  a  great  deal 
out  of  honest  delight  in  righteousness  and  human 
ity  ;  but  he  was  never  moved  to  reticence  by  the 
thought  that  if  his  scattered  seed  produced  a  fair 
share  of  grain,  the  demands  upon  his  own  precious 
store  would  be  lessened. 

Besides,  the  deacon  could,  with  propriety,  urge  a 
more  conspicuous  form  of  well-doing  than  mere 
contributions  of  currency  ever  attained  to.  Had 
not  he  himself  taken  upon  his  shoulders  Tom 
Adams,  driver  of  the  brick-yard  team  ?  If  any  one 
doubted  it,  or  had  never  been  made  acquainted 
with  the  fact,  the  deacon  gave  him  no  excuse  for 
farther  ignorance.  One  after  another  of  the  well- 


164  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

to-do  merchants,  professional  men,  and  farmers,  were 
urged  by  the  deacon  to  take  entire  charge  of  some 
unfortunate  soul,  after  the  manner  of  the  deacon 
himself  with  Tom,  and  to  all  of  these  he  insisted 
that  what  he  had  done  for  Tom  he  had  been  richly 
paid  for  by  the  approving  smiles  of  his  own  con 
science.  Shrewd  judges  of  human  nature  were  con 
vinced  that  if  such  payment  was  made  to  the  deacon, 
he  was  doubly  paid,  for  Tom  Adams  had  been  a 
treasure  of  a  workman  ever  since  he  had  stopped 
drinking;  but,  with  the  marvelous  blindness  of  the 
man  who  objects  to  seeing,  the  deacon  clearly  com 
prehended  both  aspects  of  the  situation,  without 
ever  once  allowing  them  to  interfere  with  each  other. 

He  was  pursuing  his  favorite  line  of  argument  in 
his  store  one  afternoon,  before  Parson  Brown,  Law 
yer  Bottom,  the  postmaster,  Dr.  White,  and  two  or 
three  others  who  were  not  active  customers  at  that 
immediate  moment,  and,  as  all  his  hearers  but  the 
parson  were  in  good  circumstances,  the  deacon  felt 
called  upon  to  make  an  unusual  effort. 

"  Tell  you  what  it  is,  gentlemen,"  said  he,  "  there's 
nothin'  like  puttin'  your  hand  in  your  pocket  to 
show  you  what  doin'  good  is.  Here  I've  been 
thinkirT  all  my  life  that  I  was  doin'  good  *by  sub- 


A   FIRST   INWARD    PEEP.  1 6$ 

scribin'  to  Bible  Societies,  Missionary  Societies,  an' 
all  such  things,  and  yet  there  was  the  chance  right 
in  my  own  hands,  and  I  was  too  blind  to  see  it.  I 
done  it  at  last  on  a  risk,  as  if  God  didn't  know  best 
when  he  inspires  men  to  righteous  deeds ;  an'  I  was 
fearful,  time  an'  again,  that  it  mightn't  turn  out 
well ;  but  I've  been  more  abundantly  blessed  at  it 
than  I  ever  expected  to  be.  It  makes  a  man  feel 
kind  of  like  Christ  must  have  felt,  to  be  able  to  help 
a  fellow-creature  out  of  his  troubles  and  sins.  Look 
at  Tom  Adams  now  !  he's  always  sober,  his  children 
go  to  Sunday-school,  and  he's  never  around  looking 
as  if  you'd  rather  not  meet  him,  and  /,  thank  the 
Lord  !  feel  even  better  over  it  than  he  does." 

The  postmaster  slyly  tipped  a  grave  wink  at 
Lawyer  Bottom,  and  the  lawyer  sagely  laid  a  wise 
forefinger  athwart  his  own  nose.  Dr.  White 
dropped  a  short  bark,  intended  for  a  cough,  which 
somehow  provoked  a  smile  all  around.  Suddenly  a 
small  boy  rushed  into  the  store,  exclaiming, 

"O  Deacon  Jones!  Tom  Adams  fell  out  of 
the  wagon  and  broke  his  leg  !  " 

The  deacon's  ecstatic  expression  instantly  van 
ished  into  thin  air,  and  he  asked,  with  a  face  full  of 
misery, 


l66  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

"  And  the  horses  ran  away?" 

"  No,"  said  the  boy.     "  They  re  all  right." 

Dr.  White  sprang  up,  seized  his  cane,  and  asked, 

"Where  is  he?" 

"  That's  so,"  asked  the  deacon,  still  more  sorrow 
ful  of  countenance,  as  he  continued,  "  just  as  corn's 
beginnin'  to  come  in,  too,  an'  needin'to  be  measured 
an'  sacked  ;  that's  just  the  way  things  go  in  this 
wicked  world  ! " 

Lawyer  Bottom,  who  did  not  believe  much  in 
God,  and  believed  still  less  in  the  deacon,  asked, 

"  Well,  deacon,  then  you  wouldn't  advise  me  to 
take  somebody  on  my  hands  for  the  sake  of  the 
spiritual  payment  I'll  be  likely  to  get  out  of  the 
operation?" 

The  deacon  rallied  himself  by  a  tremendous  effort, 
but  his  countenance  did  not  indicate  that  the  an 
swer  he  was  about  to  make  would  be  of  that  soft 
ness  that  turns  away  wrath ;  he  was  saved  from 
disgracing  himself,  however,  by  still  another  boy, 
who  came  flying  through  the  main  street  on  horse 
back,  shouting, 

"Fire!  fire!     The  woolen  mill !     Fire!" 

The  deacon's  store  emptied  in  an  instant  of  every 
one  but  Parson  Brown,  for  all  the  other  listeners 


A   FIRST   INWARD   PEEP.  l6/ 

were  men  of  some  means,  and  stockholders  in  the 
mill. 

"  Here !  "  shouted  the  deacon,  cutting  the  cords 
of  a  "  nest  "  of  pails  ;  "  take  buckets  along  with  you  ; 
like  enough  it'll  need  everybody's  help,  and  the 
mill's  only  half  insured,  too  !  Parson,  would  you 
mind  sittin' here  until  my  boy  gets  back?  I'm 
losin'  enough  to-day  without  having  to  shut  up 
store,  too." 

"  Certainly,  I'll  stay,"  said  the  old  preacher, 
limping  to  the  front  of  the  store,  and  laying  his 
hand  on  the  shoulder  of  the  troubled  store-keeper  ; 
"  but,  Brother  Jones,  if  the  light  of  that  burning 
mill  should  show  you  anything  inside  of  yourself, 
dont  cover  your  eyes.  It's  for  righteousness'  sake  I 
ask  it." 

"All  right,  Brother  Brown,"  whispered  the  dea 
con  hoarsely,  as  he  started  off  with  two  water-pails 
in  each  hand,  and  murmuring,  "What  did  the  old 
fellow  mean  by  that,  I  wonder?  "  Across  the  street 
was  Squire  Tomple,  just  jumping  into  his  buggy, 
and  the  deacon  made  haste  to  accept  an  invitation 
to  a  seat  beside  his  fellow-sufferer.  The  two  stock 
holders  did  not  lack  company;  Crupp,  Judge  Mac- 
donald,  and  most  of  the  other  stockholders,  either 


168  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

preceded  or  followed  them,  and  on  the  road  were 
hundreds  of  men  and  boys,  full  of  an  enterprising 
desire  to  see  the  largest  fire  that  had  ever  occurred 
in  Barton,  and  already  experiencing  such  of  the 
pleasures  of  anticipation  as  a  heavy  column  of 
smoke  could  create.  Coming  in  sight  of  the  mill 
itself,  the  deacon  groaned,  and  the  Squire  assisted 
him,  for  flames  were  bursting  from  every  window, 
and  the  men  who  had  been  passing  pails  of  water 
up  ladders  and  through  the  stairways  had  been 
driven  from  their  work,  and  had  formed  a  circle 
which  was  slowly  but  steadily  widening.  Consid 
erable  of  the  wool  had  been  removed  and  stacked 
outside  the  building,  and  it  now  became  necessary 
to  move  this  still  farther  away,  but  so  many  hands 
were  ready  to  seize  it  that  Deacon  Jones  could  not 
relieve  his  feelings  even  by  attempting  to  save 
property ;  so  he  stood  still  and  looked  at  the  fire,  as 
he  estimated  his  losses.  Such  a  day  he  had  not 
known  since  he  had  lost  considerable  uninsured 
stock  by  the  explosion  of  a  river  steamer.  Sidling 
uneasily  about  among  the  crowd,  he  found  several 
stockholders  anxiously  comparing  pencil  notes,  and 
the  figures  were  anything  but  consolatory  ^suppos* 
ing  all  the  stock  to  be  saved,  there  was  yet  the  mill 


A   FIRST   INWARD   PEEP.  169 

and  machinery — value,  about  ten  thousand  dollars 
— which  would  be  totally  lost ;  insurance,  five  thou 
sand  dollars  ;  dead  loss,  ditto  ;  which  left  the  Squire 
out  of  pocket  to  the  extent  of  a  quarter  of  his 
subscription.  The  small  profit  which  had  already 
accrued  would  not  more  than  cover  the  loss  of  the 
interest  on  the  remaining  capital  until  the  mill 
could  be  rebuilt,  if  it  seemed  advisable  to  rebuild  it. 

"  Who's  to  blame  for  all  this?"  asked  the  deacon 
angrily. 

"  We  haven't  learned  yet,"  said  the  judge,  "  and 
I'm  afraid  it  won't  help  matters  any  to  know  all 
about  it.  There  goes  the  last  of  it  !  " 

As  the  judge  spoke,  the  blazing  frame  fell,  the 

small  boys  shouted  "  Oh h  ! '"'  in  chorus,  and  the 

deacon's  heart  sank  like  lead  as  he  turned  away. 
He  had  lost,  say,  a  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  by  the 
fire,  and  Tom  Adams's  misfortune  would  entail  addi 
tional  loss  upon  him,  for  a  new  man  would  have  to 
be  watched  and  taught  and  helped,  whereas  Torn 
worked  as  easily  as  the  wheel  of  a  machine.  It  was 
but  right  that  the  deacon  should  regret  his  losses ; 
for  though  he  was  a  man  of  considerable  property, 
«L  dollar  looked  very  large  to  him,  for  the  reason  that 
his  first  dollars  had  each  one  represented  an  enor- 


170  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

mous  amount  of  labor.  But  when  Lawyer  Bottom, 
who  had  invested  in  mill  stock  only  with  the  hope 
of  profit,  approached  the  deacon,  and  asked,  with 
more  curiosity  than  malice,  "  How  about  temper 
ance  now,  deacon  ?  "  the  facial  contortions  which 
the  deacon  offered  in  reply  sent  the  lawyer  away  in 
an  ecstasy  of  unholy  glee,  which  almost  eradicated 
his  own  sense  of  loss,  and  which  dispelled  for  a  time 
such  little  belief  as  he  had  in  the  transforming 
power  of  religion.  But  what  is  one  man's  poison  is 
another's  food.  The  lawyer's  question  was  not  en 
tirely  disposed  of  by  the  deacon's  ungracious  reply  ; 
it  repeated  itself  time  and  again  to  the  old  man, 
and  at  the  most  inopportune  times  and  places ; 
it  came  to  him  behind  the  counter,  and  made  him 
give  wrong  weights  and  measures,  with  the  bal 
ance  not  always  in  his  favor ;  it  came  to  him  when 
he  was  making  entries  in  his  day-book,  and  caused 
him  to  forget  certain  items  ;  at  his  own  dinner-table 
it  suddenly  made  itself  heard,  and  interfered  with  his 
relish  of  the  good  viands  which  he  so  much  enjoyed  ; 
it  dropped  in  upon  him  in  his  dreams,  when  he 
could  not  be  on  his  guard  against  his  better  self, 
and  extracted  from  his  conscience  a  provoking  line 
of  answers  which  in  his  waking  hours  he  could  not 


A   FIRST   INWARD   PEEP.  I/I 

gainsay.  For  three  days  this  depressing  experience 
continued,  and  then  there  occurred,  at  the  regular 
weekly  prayer-meeting  of  Parson  Wedgewell's 
church,  an  episode  which  for  months  caused  mourn 
ful  reflections  in  the  minds  of  such  of  Parson 
Wedgewell's  parishioners  as  were  not  in  the  habit 
of  attending  prayer-meeting.  It  was  noticed  by 
the  faithful  that  Deacon  Jones  looked  unusually 
solemn  and  sensitive  as  he  entered  the  room,  and 
that  he  did  not,  as  had  been  hitherto  his  habit, 
start  the  second  hymn.  This  omission  having  been 
made  good  by  some  enterprising  member,  however, 
the  deacon  got  upon  his  feet  and  said  : 

"  Brethren,  during  the  past  few  days  my  eyes 
have  been  opened,  and  what  I  have  seen  hasn't 
been  pleasant  to  look  upon.  It  is  indeed  true,  my 
dear  friends,  that  Satan  sometimes  appears  as  an 
angel  of  light.  For  months  I've  been  feeling,  and 
real  happily,  too,  what  a  glorious  thing  it  was  to  do 
good  ;  I  had  been  instrumental  in  saving  one  man 
from  destruction  by  keeping  him  busy,  and  I'd  helped 
save  another" — here  the  deacon  paused  suddenly 
and  looked  around  to  make  sure  that  Judge  Mac- 
donald  was  not  in  the  room — "I'd  helped  save 
another  by  taking  an  interest  in  the  mill.  But 


THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 


within  a  few  days  I've  learned  that  my  own  right 
eousness  was  as  filthy  rags  ;  'twas  even  worse  than 
that,  brethren,  for  the  worst  rags  are  worth  so  much 
a  pound,  but  I  can't  find  that  my  righteousness  is 
worth  anything  at  all.  I've  fought  it  out  with  my 
self,  brethren,  an'  I  believe  I've  conquered  ;  but  it 
makes  my  heart  sick  to  see  what  my  enemy  looks 
like,  an'  to  think  I've  got  to  carry  him  around  with 
me  through  the  rest  of  my  days.  Doin'  good's  all 
right,  even  if  it  does  pay  in  dollars  and  cents,  breth 
ren  ;  but  doin'  good  for  the  sake  of  what  it'll  bring 
is  the  quickest  way  of  makin'  a  hypocrite  that  I  ever 
found,  an'  I'm  beginnin'  to  think  that  I've  found 
a  good  many  ways  in  myself,  my  friends.  I  ask  an 
interest  in  the  prayers  of  God's  people,  an'  I  assure 
'em  that  there's  no  danger  of  any  of  their  prayers 
bein'  wasted." 

The  deacon  dropped  into  his  seat,  and  the  silence 
that  prevailed  for  a  moment  was  simply  inevitable 
in  a  little  company  that  had  never  before  heard 
such  an  extraordinary  confession  ;  as  one  of  the 
members  afterward  remarked,  it  sounded  like  a 
murderer's  last  dying  speech.  Then  good  Parson 
Wedgewell  sprang  to  his  feet,  and,  with  streaming 
eyes  and  rapid  utterances,  offered  a  prayer  such  as 


A    FIRST   INWARD   PEEP.  173 

had  never  been  heard  in  that  room  before.  The 
songs  and  prayers  which  followed  were  not  those 
to  which  the  meeting  were  accustomed,  and  when 
at  last  the  assemblage  separated,  there  could  not  be 
heard  from  the  home-wending  couples  any  critiques 
of  the  language  or  garb  of  any  one  who  had  been 
present. 

As  for  Deacon  Jones,  he  continued  his  new  fight 
most  valiantly  by  visiting  Tom  Adams  that  very 
evening,  and  assuring  him  that,  their  supplement 
ary  agreement  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  he 
would  continue  Tom's  pay  during  his  confinement, 
and  would  pay  his  doctor's  bill  also. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

A   REFORMER   DISAPPOINTED. 

TOURING  the  day  or  two  which  followed  his 
•*•— ^  interview  with  Tappelmine,  Father  Baguss 
was  consumed  with  conflicting  emotions.  He  could 
not  deny  that  hi's*  offer  to  help  Tappelmine  had 
taken  an  unpleasant  load  off  of  his  own  heart ;  but  it 
was  equally  certain  that  the  contemplation  of  the 
possible  results  of  the  arrangement  gave  him  a 
sense  of  oppression,  which  differed  from  the  first  in 
quality,  but  of  which  the  quantity  was  far  too  great 
to  be  endured  with  comfort.  To  find  a  way  of  get 
ting  out  of  the  whole  matter  was  a  suggestion 
which  came  frequently  to  the  heart  of  the  old  man, 
and  was  not  as  rigidly  excluded  as  it  would  have 
been  from  that  of  the  reader  ;  but  fortunately  for  the 
honesty  of  Father  Baguss,  his  ingenuity  was  of  the 
lowest  order  conceivable  ;  so  he  did  as  thousands  of 
his  betters  have  done  when  unable,  by  any  abandon 
ment  of  self-respect,  to  avoid  the  inevitable:  ^ie  sub 
mitted,  and  groaned  frequently  to  the  Lord.  Some- 


A   REFORMER   DISAPPOINTED.  1/5 

times  these  efforts  before  the  Unseen  increased  the 
old  man's  lugubriousness;  at  other  times,  a  song 
came  to  his  rescue,  followed  by  a  troop  of  its  own 
kind ;  but  so  uncertain  were  his  moods  that  Mrs. 
Baguss,  who  never  before  had  occasion  to  suppose 
that  there  was  a  single  nerve  in  her  husband's  body, 
began  to  complain  that  she  didn't  "  believe  in  this 
thing  of  lookin'  out  for  other  folks,  if  it  makes  you 
cranky  with  your  own." 

The  old  man's  trouble  increased  on  the  third  day, 
for  Tappelmine  dropped  in  and  hinted  vaguely  that 
it  was  not  yet  too  late  to  plant  winter  wheat.  The 
old  man  went  into  Tappelmine's  field  with  his  own 
team,  and  plowed  ;  he  worked  his  horses  longer 
hours  than  he  ever  did  on  his  own  ground  ;  he  lent 
an  extra  horse  to  work  with  Tappelmine's  own  be 
fore  a  harrow  ;  he  himself  sowed  the  wheat,  casting 
now  plentifully,  as  he  thought  of  what  Tappelmine 
might  owe  him  by  harvest-time,  and  now  scantily, 
as  he  thought  of  what  might  be  his  own  fate  if  the 
crop  should  be  troubled  with  rust,  or  blight,  or  rain, 
or  drought.  And  all  the  while,  as  he  followed  his 
horses,  the  old  man  kept  uttering  short  petitions 
for  Tappelmine  and  himself ;  and  all  the  while  his 
soul  was  full  of  unspoken  prayers  for  heavy  rains  or 


176  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

sudden  cold,  so  that  the  work  might  be  stopped  by 
the  hand  of  Providence  himself.  But  no  such  for 
tune  befell  the  good  old  man:  such  an  open  fall  had 
not  been  known  since  the  settlement  of  Barton ; 
even  the  Indian  summer  lasted  so  long  that  the 
poet  of  the  Barton  Register  found  opportunity  to 
publish,  in  three  successive  weekly  numbers,  "  odes," 
which  could  be  read  in  the  weather  which  sug 
gested  them.  When  a  heavy  rain  at  last  put  an 
end  to  field  work,  there  were  twenty-seven  acres 
in  wheat  on  the  Tappelmine  estate.  Father  Baguss 
ached  in  soul  and  body,  but  the  wheat-field  work 
was  but  the  beginning  of  sorrow.  The  Tappelmine 
larder  was  bareness  itself;  there  was  not  a  porker 
in  the  Tappelmine  pen  ;  there  was  not  even  corn 
enough  in  the  Tappelmine  crib  to  feed  the  family 
horse,  let  alone  to  send  to  mill,  and  be  ground  into 
the  meal  which  the  Tappelmines  fortunately  pre 
ferred  to  fine  flour.  Father  Baguss  sold  the  neces 
sities  of  life  in  small  quantities  to  his  neighbor, 
with  the  understanding  that  they  were  to  be  repaid 
by  the  labor  of  Tappelmine,  who  was  to  get  out  ma 
terial  for  barrel-staves  and  wheelwright's  spokes  on 
the  old  man's  woodland  ;  but,  by  the  time  th^wheat 
was  planted,  Tappelmine,  who,  under  the  eye  of 


A   REFORMER   DISAPPOINTED.  177 

Baguss,  did  more  work  in  a  month  than  he  had 
done  in  the  whole  of  the  year  which  preceded,  and 
who  during  the  month  had  been  pretty  effectually 
kept  from  his  accustomed  stimulant,  fell  sick.  Then 
the  cup  of  misery  which  Father  Baguss  had  put  to 
his  own  lips  was  full;  as  the  old  man,  in  his  homely 
way,  explained  to  his  own  pastor,  it  didn't  run  over, 
and  that  was  just  the  trouble  ;  he  had  to  drink  it  all. 
He  sought  for  sympathy  among  his  neighbors  and 
acquaintances,  but  without  much  success  ;  the  Bar 
ton  postmaster  expressed  the  sentiment  of  the  town 
ship,  when  he  said  that  "  no  one  but  a  thick-headed 
blunderer  like  Baguss  would  attempt  to  reform  a 
dead-and-gone  soaker  like  Tappelmme."  Besides, 
most  of  the  inhabitants  wanted  to  see  how  the  case 
was  going  to  turn  out,  and  all  of  them  instinctively 
understood  that  the  best  point  of  view  is  always  at 
a  respectable  distance  from  the  object  to  be  looked 
at.  The  sorrowing  philanthropist  went  to  Crupp, 
Tomple,  and  Deacon  Jones  ;  but  these  three  reform 
ers,  knowing  that  Baguss  could  afford  the  loss, 
quietly  agreed  with  each  other  that  it  would  be  in 
deed  consolatory  to  have  a  companion  in  experi 
ence  ;  so  they  made  excuses,  and  quoted  figures  in 
evidence,  and  Father  Baguss  went  home  with  the 


1 78  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

settled   conviction   that  he  would  have  to  look  to 
Providence  for  his  only  assistance. 

But  while  Providence  was  thus  reforming  Father 
Baguss,  Tappelmine  was  growing  steadily  weaker, 
and  Baguss  found  his  causes  of  discomfort  increased 
by  a  debate,  which  lasted  long  in  his  mind,  whether 
it  might  not  be  better,  for  the  sake  of  the  drunkard's 
family,  to  let  Tappelmine  die,  and  then  lease  the 
farm  himself  at  a  price  which  would  support  the 
widow.  While  one  phase  of  the  case  was  present 
in  his  mind,  he  would  suggest  to  the  doctor  that 
medicine  didn't  seem  to  do  any  good — which  was 
certainly  true — and  that  he  didn't  believe  it  would 
pay  to  come  so  often  ;  when,  on  the  contrary,  con 
science  would  argue  for  its  own  side,  the  old  man 
would  have  all  three  of  the  physicians  visit  Tappel 
mine  in  rapid  succession.  The  doctors  disagreed, 
as  any  one  but  Father  Baguss  would  have  known. 
Perry  suggested  electrical  treatment,  which  would 
necessitate  the  purchase  of  a  battery,  no  such  piece 
of  mechanism  having  ever  been  seen  in  the  town 
except  in  a  locked  cabinet  of  the  Barton  High 
School.  Dr.  White  outlined  a  course  of  treatment 
which  seemed  reasonable  to  Father  Bagttss,  but 
which,  put  into  practice,  did  neither  good  nor  harm  ; 


A   REFORMER   DISAPPOINTED. 


while  Pykem  arranged  for  certain  inexpensive  ap 
plications  of  water,  with  results  which  were  in  the 
main  encouraging.  But  Tappelmine  was  unable  to 
leave  his  bed  for  three  months,  and  when  he  was  at 
all  fit  to  work,  he  could  labor  for  but  two  or  three 
hours  a  day. 

And  so  Father  Baguss  found  himself  brought 
down  to  the  position  of  a  man  who  was  spending 
money  without  knowing  what  he  was  to  get  for  it. 
Such  a  position  he  had  never  occupied  before,  and 
no  one  could  wonder  that  he  felt  uncomfortable  in 
it  ;  but  the  duration  of  the  period  was  such  that  the 
victim  succumbed  to  the  steady  pressure  of  truths 
which,  in  their  abstract  form,  would  have  been  as 
ineffective  against  him  as  against  an  acute  logi 
cian  whose  intellect  had  been  trained  by  his 
pocket. 

But  Father  Baguss  was  not  the  only  instrument 
of  the  salvation  of  Tappelmine.  In  existence,  but 
scarcely  known  of  or  recognized,  there  was  a  Mrs. 
Tappelmine.  With  face,  hair,  eyes,  and  garments 
of  the  same  color,  the  color  itself  being  neutral  ; 
small,  thin,  faded,  inconspicuous,  poorly  clad,  bent 
with  labors  which  had  yielded  no  return,  as  dead  to 
the  world  as  saints  strive  to  be,  yet  remaining  in 


180  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

the  world  for  the  sake  of  those  whom  she  had  often 
wished  out  of  it,  Mrs.  Tappelmine  devoted  her 
self  to  the  wreck  of  what  was  once  a  hope  over 
which  her  eyes  had  been  of  a  luster  which  high-born 
maidens  had  envied,  and  a  hope  in  which  her  heart 
had  throbbed  with  a  joy  which  had  seemed  too 
great  for  life  to  hold.  About  the  bedside  of  her 
husband  she  hovered  day  and  night.  When  she 
slept  no  one  but  herself  knew,  and  she  herself  did 
not  care.  When  Tappelmine  made  his  verbal 
agreement  with  Father  Baguss,  she  had  listened 
with  a  joy  whose  earnestness  was  as  nothing  com 
pared  with  her  resolution.  She  had  hurried  away 
from  the  broken  window  to  a  corner  where  her 
dirty  children  were  at  quarrelsome  play,  and  she 
had  bestowed  upon  each  of  them  a  passionate 
caress  which  startled  even  the  little  wretches  them 
selves  into  wondering  silence.  From  that  moment 
she  watched  her  husband's  every  movement,  and 
Tappelmine,  like  a  true  Pike — for  the  Pike,  like  the 
Transcendentalist,  existed  ages  before  he  found  his 
way  into  literature — Tappelmine  subjected  himself 
into  his  wife's  dominion.  He  made  numberless  ex 
cuses  to  go  to  some  place  where  liquor  aould  be 
found  ;  she,  with  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent,  yet  the 


A   REFORMER   DISAPPOINTED.  iSl 

gentleness  of  the  dove,  prevented  him.  As,  through 
the  course  of  her  husband's  labors,  under  the  eye  of 
Baguss,  he  had  grown  more  silent  than  ever,  she  had 
increased  her  exertions  for  his  comfort ;  when,  finally, 
the  task  was  completed,  and  Tappelmine,  with  thin 
ner  face  and  hollower  eyes  than  ever,  fell  heavily 
upon  his  rude  bed  and  uttered — almost  screamed — 
the  single  word  "  Whiskey  !  "  she  was  on  her  knees 
beside  him  in  an  instant. 

"Jerry,"  she  exclaimed,  "  you've  got  the  better 
of  whiskey  these  late  days." 

"  Just  a  drop  more — to  keep  me  from  dying," 
gasped  Tappelmine. 

"  Don't,  Jerry,"  she  pleaded.  "  Let  me  hold  you 
tight,  so  you  cant  die." 

"  Just  a  drop,  for  God's  sake,  Mariar  !  "  said  Tap 
pelmine  imploringly. 

"  O  Jerry  !  "  replied  the  wife,  "  don't— for  the 
children's  sake ;  they  re  more  to  you  than  God  is. 
I  hope  he'll  forgive  me  for  sayin'  it." 

"  Only  a  single  mouthful,  Mariar,"  said  Tappel 
mine,  "  to  keep  me  from  sinkin'." 

"You're  not  sinkin',  old  man — Jerry,  dear;  you're 
gittin'  up.  Keep  up,  Jerry." 

"  I'll  be  all  right  in  a  day  or  two,  Mariar,  if  I  only 


1 82  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

get  a  taste.  You  don't  want  a  sick  man  a-layin' 
around,  not  fit  to  do  for  his  young  ones?  " 

"  You  don't  need  to,  Jerry.  /'//  do  for  'em,  if 
you'll  only — only  make  'em  proud  of  you." 

"  It'll  make  me  good  for  more  to  you,  old 
woman — one  single  mouthful  will,"  said  Tappel- 
mine. 

"  You've  been  better  to  me  these  three  weeks  than 
you  ever  was  before,  Jerry  ;  keep  on  bein'  so,  won't 
you  ?  It  puts  me  in  mind  of  old  times — times  when 
you  used  to  laugh,  an'  kiss  me." 

"  I'd  be  that  way  again,"  said  Tappelmine,  "  if  I 
could  only  pick  up  stren'th." 

"  You're  that  way  now,  Jerry,  if  you  only  stay 
as  you  are." 

"  You'll  die,  Mariar,"  said  the  man,  "  if  I  don't 
get  out  of  this  bed  some  way — you  an'  the  young 
uns." 

"  I'd  be  glad  enough,"  said  the  woman,  "  if  you'd 
only  stay,  Jerry." 

"  An'  the  boys  an'  girls  ?  "  queried   Tappelmine. 

"  Would  be  better  off  alongside  of  me  in  the 
ground,  rather  than  have  their  dad  go  backwards 
again,"  said  Mrs.  Tappelmine.  "  People  turn  up 
their  noses  at  'em  now,  Jerry." 


A   REFORMER   DISAPPOINTED.  183 

"  What  are  you  drivin*  at,  Mariar  ?  " 

"  Why,  Jerry,  when  the  children  go  'long  the  road 
--God  knows  I  don't  let  'em  do  it  oftener  than  I 
can  help— folks  see  'em  dirty,  an'  wearin'  poor 
clothes,  an'  not  lookin'  over  an' above  fed  up,  an'  they 
can't  help  kind  o'  twitchin'  up  their  faces  at  'em 
once  there  was  a  time  when  I  couldn't  have  helped 
doin'  it  to  young  ones  lookin'  that  way." 

"  Curse  people!  "  exclaimed  Tappelmine. 

"They  do  it  to  me,  too,"  continued   the  woman. 

Tappelmine  sprang  up,  and  exclaimed  fiercely, 

"What  for?" 

"  'Cause — 'cause  you've  made  'em,  I  reckon,  Jerry," 
answered  Mrs.  Tappelmine  with  some  difficulty,  oc 
casioned  by  some  choking  sobs  which  nearly  took 
exclusive  possession  of  her.  "  You  know,  Jerry,  I 
don't  say  it  to  complain — complainin'  never  seems  to 
bring  one  any  good  to  a  woman  like  me  ;  but — if 
you  onlyknowed  how  folks  look  at  me  in — in  stores, 
an'  everywhere  else,  you — wouldn't  blame  me  for 
not  likin'  it.  /didn't  ever  do  anything  to  bring  it 
about,  unless  'twas  in  marryin'  you,  and  I  aint  sorry 
I  did  that;  but  I  wish  I  didn't  ever  have  to 
see  anybody  again,  if  you're  goin'  to  keep  on 
drinkin'." 


1 84  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

The  sick  man  fell  back  and  was  silent ;  his  wife 
threw  herself  beside  him,  crying, 

"  Don't  get  mad  at  me,  Jerry  ;  God  knows  it's  the 
deadest  truth." 

After  a  moment  or  two  Tappelmine  laid  a  hand 
on  his  wife's  cheek,  where  it  had  not  been  before  for 
twenty  years  ;  once  its  touch  had  brought  blushes  ; 
now,  tears  hurried  down  to  meet  it,  and  yet  Mrs. 
Tappelmine  was  happier  than  when  she  had  been 
a  pretty  Kentucky  girl,  twenty  years  before. 

"  Mariar,"  said  Tappelmine  at  last,  "  I've  dragged 
you  all  down." 

"  No,  you  haven't,  Jerry,"  asserted  Mrs.  Tappel 
mine,  with  a  lie  which  she  could  not  avoid. 

"  If  dyin'll  help  you  up  again,  I'm  willin',"  con 
tinued  Tappelmine. 

The  apartments  in  the  Tappelmine  mansion 
were  so  few  that  it  was  impossible  for  anything 
unusual  to  transpire  without  attracting  the  atten 
tion  of  all  the  inmates  ;  so  it  followed  that  the  chil 
dren,  beholding  the  actions  of  their  parents,  had 
gradually  approached  the  bed  with  countenances 
whose  blankness  was  painfully  eloquent  to  the  sick 
man.  Tappelmine  looked  at  them,  and  gf^w  more 
miserable  of  visage  ;  he  hid  his  face  beside  his  wife, 


A   REFORMER  DISAPPOINTED.  1 8$ 

groaned  "  No  more  whiskey  if  I  die  for  it !  "  and 
jumped  up  and  kissed  each  of  his  children,  while 
Mrs.  Tappelmine  sobbed  aloud,  and  Father  Baguss, 
who,  coming  over  a  few  moments  before  to  talk 
business,  had  heard  the  simple  word  "  whiskey,"  and 
had  since  been  jealously  listening  under  the  win 
dow,  sneaked  away  muttering  to  himself, 

"After  all  I've  done  for  him,  I  can't  even  say  to 
myself  that  /saved  him." 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

THE  CONCLUSION  OF  THE  WHOLE  MATTER 

*  I  ^HE  fire  which  destroyed  the  Mississippi  Valley 
-*•  Woolen  Mills  did  such  damage  in  the  ranks  of 
the  temperance  reformers  that  for  a  few  months 
Crupp,  Tomple,  and  several  others  had  frequent 
cause  to  feel  lonesome,  while  poor  Father  Baguss 
fell  back  upon  the  church  for  that  comfort  which, 
just  after  his  first  effort  with  Tappelmine,  and  before 
the  fire,  he  had  frequently  found  in  the  society  of 
his  self-approving  brother  stockholders.  The  mill 
was  rebuilt,  only  a  few  of  the  owners  of  stock  refusing 
to  be  assessed  for  their  proportion  of  the  loss  ;  the 
mill  made  a  very  prosperous  winter,  and  interested 
persons  were  not  averse  to  talking  about  it ;  but 
after  Deacon  Jones'  speech  was  noised  abroad,  the 
mill  was  no  longer  a  semi-holy  topic  of  conversation, 
which  was  allowable  even  on  the  church  steps  on 
Sundays.  Some  of  the  men  whose  eyes  had  been 
opened  toward  themselves,  on  the  occasidTi  of  the 
fire,  were  honest  enough  to  confess  to  themselves, 


CONCLUSION  OF  THE  WHOLE   MATTER. 


and  to  bring  forth  fruits  meet  for  repentance  ;  but 
the  majority  took  refuge  either  in  open  or  secret 
sophistry,  with  the  comforting  impression  that  they 
blinded  others  as  effectually  as  they  did  themselves. 
The  mass  of  the  people,  however  —  those  who  neither 
subscribed  to  temperance  funds,  nor  mill  stock,  nor 
anything  else,  still  looked  on,  and  were  plethoric  of 
encouragement  and  criticism.  When  appealed  to  for 
help,  their  logic  was  simply  bewildering,  and  almost 
as  depraved  as  the  same  defensive  and  offensive 
weapon  is  in  politics.  Tomple  was  the  man  to  do 
such  work,  said  some,  for  he  was  the  rich  man  of  the 
village,  and  rich  men  are  only  God's  stewards  ;  oth 
ers  suggested  Captain  Crayme,  who  had  money,  and 
who  should  be  willing  to  spend  considerable  of  it  as  a 
thank-offering  for  his  own  providential  deliverance 
from  the  thraldom  of  drink.  The  irreligious  thought 
that  all  such  work  should  be  done  by  the  church,  if 
churches  were  good  for  anything  but  to  shout  in  ; 
while  the  religious  felt  that  the  irreligious,  among 
whom  could  be  found  nearly  every  drinker  in  the 
village,  should  expend  whatever  money  was  needed 
for  the  physical  reformation  of  their  kind.  Where 
none  of  these  excuses  seemed  available,  or  wherever 
two  or  three  conservatives  of  differing  views  met 


1 88  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

together,  there  was  always  Crupp  to  fall  back  upon  ; 
each  man  could  grasp  his  own  pocket-book  with 
tender  tenacity,  and  declare  to  a  sympathetic  audi 
ence  that  the  man  who  had  coined  his  money  out 
of  widows'  tears  and  orphans'  groans  should  by 
rights  take  care  of  all  the  drunkards  in  the  county, 
even  until  he  was  so  reduced  in  means  as  to  be 
dependent  upon  public  charity  for  his  own  support. 
Thus  matters  stood  when  a  year  had  elapsed 
since  the  memorable  temperance  meeting,  and  Par 
son  Wedgewell  suggested  that  an  anniversary  ser 
vice  would  be  only  an  ordinary  and  decent  testi 
monial  of  respect  to  Providence  for  his  special 
mercies  during  the  year.  To  the  parson's  surprise, 
Crupp  who — though  he  had  during  the  winter  sur 
prised  every  one  by  joining  Parson  Wedgewell's 
church,  in  spite  of  a  very  severe  course  of  ques 
tioning  by  the  Examining  Committee — was  still  a 
man  of  action  and  a  contemner  of  mere  words — • 
Crupp  not  only  failed  to  oppose  such  a  meeting,  but 
volunteered  himself  to  write  for  Major  Ben  Bailey, 
the  gifted  orator  who  had  addressed  the  earlier 
meeting,  and  to  pay  the  orator's  expenses.  Such 
offers  were  rarely  made,  even  by  the  Barton  reform 
ers,  so  by  unanimous  consent  Crupp  wrote  to  the 


CONCLUSION   OF  THE  WHOLE   MATTER.      189 

great  lecturer,  it  being  admitted  by  Tomple,  Wedge- 
well,  Baguss,  and  Jones,  that  Crupp's  idea  of  in 
forming  the  Major  what  had  been  done  during  the 
year  was  a  good  one,  and  that  it  would  enable  the 
orator  to  modify  his  address  with  special  reference 
to  existing  circumstances.  But  Squire  Tomple  and 
the  parson  were  considerably  astonished  to  see 
Crupp  dash  into  the  Squire's  store  one  day,  exhib 
iting  an  unusual  degree  of  excitement,  as  he  un 
folded  a  letter  and  remarked, 

"  He  won't  come !  Just  listen  to  what  he  says  !  " 
And  while  the  two  other  reformers  stood  as  if  they 
saw  the  sky  falling  and  did  not  despair  of  catching 
it  in  their  eyes  and  mouths,  Crupp  read  : 

"  In  replying  to  Mr.  Crupp's  favor  of  the  — th, 
Major  Bailey  can  only  say,  that  while  he  should  be 
glad  to  again  meet  the  people  among  whom  so 
great  an  amount  of  good  has  been  accomplished 
within  the  year,  he  cannot  see  that  he  can  render 
any  service.  Major  Bailey's  efforts  are  confined 
solely  to  the  awakening  of  an  interest  in  temper 
ance  ;  the  condition  of  affairs  which  Mr.  Crupp  re 
ports  as  existing  in  Barton,  however,  indicates  a 
degree  of  interest  which  cannot  be  heightened  by 
any  effort  which  the  writer  could  put  forth.  What 


IQO  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

seems  desirable  at  Barton  is  such  an  informing  of 
the  general  populace  upon  what  has  been  accom 
plished,  upon  the  manner  in  which  the  work  has 
been  done,  and  the  comparatively  small  number  of 
persons  who  have  actively  participated  in  it,  as  shall 
convince  the  inhabitants  that  they  did  not  fulfill 
their  whole  duty  toward  temperance  when  a  year  ago 
they  applauded  the  utterances  of  the  writer  of  these 
lines.  Briefly,  Major  Bailey  feels  that  if  he  attended, 
he  could  contribute  only  such  efforts  as,  under  the 
circumstances,  would  be  entirely  out  of  place." 

"  Astonishing  !  "  exclaimed  Parson  Wedgewell, 
with  the  eye  of  a  man  who  dreams. 

"  Threw  away  a  job !  "  said  Tomple,  like  the 
thrifty  business  man  that  he  was. 

But  the  meeting  was  planned  and  widely  adver 
tised,  and  when,  on  the  evening  appointed,  the  at 
tendants  looked  over  the  room,  they  found  occasion 
for  considerable  attentive  reflection. 

Except  that  Major  Ben  Bailey,  the  gifted  orator, 
was  not  present,  the  meeting  presented  the  same 
attractions  which  had  drawn  such  a  crowd  to  its 
predecessor.  The  Barton  Brass  Band  was  there, 
and  with  some  new  airs  learned  during  the*  year ; 
the  Crystal  Spring  Glee  Club  was  there  ;  there  were 


CONCLUSION   OF  THE  WHOLE   MATTER.      IQI 

the  pastors  of  the  four  churches  in  Barton,  and 
Squire  Tomple  was  in  the  chair  as  before.  Besides, 
there  were  additional  attractions :  Crupp,  a  year 
before,  the  man  who  was  lending  to  liquor  selling  an 
air  of  respectability,  was  upon  the  platform  to  the 
left  and  rear  of  Squire  Tomple;  old  Bunley,  who  a 
year  before  had  been  responsible  only  as  a  container 
of  alcohol,  but  now  a  respectable  citizen  and  book 
keeper  to  Squire  Tomple,  occupied  the  secretary's 
chair ;  Tom  Adams  acted  as  usher  in  one  of  the  side- 
aisles,  and  dragged  all  the  heavy  drinkers  up  to 
front  seats  ;  Harry  Wainright  was  there,  with  a  wife 
whose  vail  was  not  thick  enough  to  hide  her  happi 
ness  ;  Fred  Macdonald,  who  had  spent  the  evening 
of  the  other  meeting  in  the  Barton  House  bar-room, 
was  there  ;  so  was  Tappelmine,  appearing  as  ill  at 
ease  as  a  porker  in  a  strange  field,  but  still  there ; 
while  in  a  side  seat,  close  to  the  wall,  sitting  as 
much  in  the  shadow  of  his  wife  as  possible,  so  as 
to  guard  his  professional  reputation,  was  Sam 
Crayme,  captain  of  the  steamer  E.xcellence.  A 
number  of  "  the  boys  "  were  there  also,  and  yet 
the  church  was  not  only  not  crowded,  but  not  even 
full.  During  the  year  temperance  had  been  guided 
from  the  hearts  to  the  pockets  of  a  great  many, 


IQ2  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

and  this  radical  treatment  had  been  fatal  to  many 
an  enthusiastic  soul  that  had  theretofore  been 
blameless  in  its  own  eyes.  Those  who  attended 
heard  some  music,  however,  which  was  not  de 
ficient  in  point  of  quality  ;  they  heard  a  short  but  live 
address  from  old  Parson  Fish  on  the  moral  beauty 
of  a  temperate  life,  and  an  earnest  prayer  from  that 
one  of  the  Barton  pastors  who  had  during  the  year 
done  nothing  which  justified  the  mention  of  his 
name  in  this  history,  and  then  the  audience  saw 
Mr.  Crupp  advance  to  the  front  of  the  platform 
and  unfold  a  large  sheet  of  paper,  which  he  crum 
pled  in  one  hand  as  he  spoke  as  follows : 

"  Ladies  and  gentlemen :  having  been  requested, 
by  the  chairman  of  the  last  meeting,  to  collect  some 
statistics  of  the  work  accomplished  in  Barton,  dur 
ing  the  past  year,  in  the  cause  of  temperance,  I  in 
vite  your  attention  to  the  following  figures : 

"  Population  of  township  last  year,  three  thou 
sand  two  hundred  and  sixty-five.  Signatures  to 
pledge,  at  last  meeting,  six  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  [applause]  ;  signatures  of  persons  who  were  in 
the  habit  of  drinking  at  time  of  signing,  two  hun 
dred  and  thirty-one ;  number  of  persons  wrTo  have 
broken  the  pledge  since  signing,  one  hundred  and 


CONCLUSION   OF  THE  WHOLE  MATTER.      193 

sixty  [sighs  and  groans] ;  number  of  persons  who 
have  kept  their  pledges,  seventy-one  [applause] ; 
number  reclaimed  by  personal  effort  since  meeting, 
forty-six  [applause]  ;  amount  of  money  subscribed 
and  applied  strictly  for  the  good  of  the  cause,  and 
without  hope  of  pecuniary  gain  [a  faint  hiss  or  two], 
five  thousand  one  hundred  and  ninety  dollars  and 
thirty-eight  cents  [tremendous  applause]  ;  amount 
which  has  been  returned  by  the  beneficiaries  without 
solicitation,  twenty-seven  dollars  [laughter,  hisses, 
and  groans].  Of  the  amount  subscribed,  six-sevenths 
came  from  jive  persons,  who  own  less  than  one-fif 
tieth  part  of  the  taxable  property  of  the  township." 

The  quiet  which  prevailed,  as  Mr.  Crupp  spoke 
these  last  words  and  took  his  seat,  was,  if  considered 
only  as  quiet,  simply  faultless  ;  but  its  duration  was 
greater  and  more  annoying  than  things  purely  fault 
less  usually  are,  and  there  was  a  general  sensation 
of  relief  when  Squire  Tomple,  who  during  the  year 
had  not  made  any  public  display  of  his  charities, 
and  who  was  popularly  supposed  to  care  as  much 
for  a  dollar  as  any  one,  slowly  got  upon  his  feet 

"  My  friends,"  said  the  Squire,  "  I'm  more  than 
ever   convinced   that   temperance  is  a  good   thing 
[hearty  applause],  and   the  reason  I  feel  so  is,  that 
9 


194  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

during  the  year  I've  put  considerable  money  into 
it ;  and  where  the  treasure  is  there  shall  the  heart 
be  also  [dead  silence].  I've  made  up  my  mind,  that 
hurrahing  and  singing  for  temperance  will  make  a 
hypocrite  out  of  a  saint,  if  he  don't  use  money  and 
effort  at  the  same  time.  I  like  a  good  song  and  a 
good  time  as  much  as  anybody,  but  I  can't  learn 
of  a  single  drinking  man  that  they  have  reformed. 
At  our  last  meeting  there  was  some  good  work 
started,  by  the  use  of  songs  and  speeches,  and  you 
have  learned,  from  the  report  just  presented,  how 
much  lasting  good  they  did.  Money  and  work 
have  done  the  business,  my  friends  ;  talk  has  helped, 
but  alone  by  itself  it's  done  precious  little.  This 
lesson  has  cost  me  a  great  deal ;  and  as  a  business 
man,  who  believes  that  every  earthly  interest  is  in 
some  way  a  business  interest,  I  advise  you  to  learn 
the  same  lesson  for  yourselves  before  it  is  too  late." 
Such  a  pail  of  cold  water  had  never  before  been 
thrown  upon  Barton  hearts  aglow  with  confidence 
it  struck  the  leader  of  the  band  so  forcibly  that  he 
rattled  off  into  "  Yankee  Doodle,"  to  aid  the  meet 
ing  in  recovering  its  spirits  ;  even  after  listening 
to  this  inspiriting  air,  however,  it  was  with*a  wist- 
fulness  almost  desperate  that  the  audience  scanned 


CONCLUSION   OF   THE   WHOLE   MATTER.      195 

the  countenance  of  Parson  Wedgewell  as  he  stepped 
to  the  front  of  the  platform. 

"  Beloved  friends,"  said  the  parson,  "  the  result 
of  the  past  year's  work  in  this  portion  of  the  Lord's 
vineyard  has  indeed  been  richly  blessed,  and  I  shall 
ever  count  it  as  one  of  the  precious  privileges  of  my 
life  that  I  have  been  permitted  to  take  part  in  it. 
[*  Hurrah  for  the  parson !  '  shouted  a  man,  who 
had  but  a  moment  before  worn  a  most  lugubrious 
countenance.]  I  rejoice,  not  only  that  I  have 
seen  precious  sheaves  brought  to  our  Lord's  gran 
ary,  but  also  because  I  have  beheld  going  into 
the  field  those  who  have  heretofore  stood  idly  in 
the  market-place,  and  because  I  have  beheld  the 
reapers  themselves  receiving  the  reward  of  their 
labors.  They  have  received  souls  for  their  hire, 
dear  friends,  and  I  feel  constrained  to  admit  that 
if  each  of  those  who  came  in  at  the  eleventh  hour 
received  as  much  as  us,  who  have  apparently  borne 
the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day,  they  were  fully 
entitled  to  it  by  reason  of  the  greater  intelligence 
and  industry  which  they  have  displayed.  For  many 
years,  my  dear  friends,  I  have  been  among  you  as 
one  sent  by  the  Physician  of  souls ;  but  it  is  only 
within  the  past  year  that  I  have  begun  to  compre- 


196  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

hend  that  the  soul  may  be  treated — very  often 
should  be  treated — through  the  body;  and  that, 
though  the  fervent  effectual  prayer  of  the  righteous 
man  availeth  much,  the  exercise  of  that  which  was 
made  in  the  likeness  and  image  of  God  is  not  to  be 
idle.  The  mammon  of  unrighteousness  has  been 
made  the  salvation  of  many,  my  dear  friends  ;  and  it 
has,  I  verily  believe,  guided  toward  heavenly  habita 
tions  those  who  have  applied  it  to  the  necessities  of 
others.  But,  dear  brethren,  the  harvest  truly  is 
plenteous,  but  the  laborers  are  few  ;  pray  ye,  there 
fore,  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  that  he  will  send  forth 
laborers  unto  his  harvest ;  but  take  heed  that  ye 
follow  the  example  of  him,  who,  as  he  commanded 
us  thus  to  petition  the  throne  of  grace,  ceased  not 
to  labor  in  the  harvest  field  himself;  who  fed  when 
he  preached,  and  healed  when  he  exhorted." 

Harry  Wainright  pounded  on  the  floor  with  his 
cane,  hearing  which,  Tom  Adams  brought  his 
enormous  hands  together  with  great  emphasis,  and 
his  example  was  dutifully  followed  by  the  whole  of 
his  own  family,  which  filled  two  short  side  seats. 
Father  Baguss  shouted  "  Glory  to  God  !  "  and  Dea 
con  Jones  ejaculated  "  That's  so  !  "  but  the  hearers 
seemed  disposed  to  be  critical,  although  the  par- 


CONCLUSION  OF  THE  WHOLE  MATTER.      197 

son's  address  had  been  couched  in  language  almost 
exclusively  Scriptural.  While  they  were  engaged  in 
contemplation,  however,  old  Bunley  dropped  a 
mellow  cough  and  stepped  to  the  front. 

"  Ladies  and  gentlemen,"  said  he,  "  it's  the  style 
in  this  town,  and  everywhere  else,  I  suppose,  to 
kick  a  man  when  he's  down,  and  then  to  trample 
on  him.  I  know  one  man  that's  been  there,  and 
knows  all  about  it.  'Twas  his  own  fault  he  got 
there,  and  there  were  plenty  who  told  him  he  ought 
to  get  up  ;  but  how  kicking  and  trampling  were  to 
help  him  do  it  he  could  never  see,  and  he  made  up 
his  mind,  that  folks  did  as  they  did  because  it  suited 
them,  not  because  it  was  going  to  do  him  any  good. 
So  he's  been  hating  the  whole  townful  for  years, 
and  doing  all  the  harm  he  could,  not  because  he 
liked  doing  harm,  but  because  he  never  got  a 
chance  to  do  anything  else.  Suddenly,  a  couple 
of  gentlemen — I  won't  mention  names — came  along 
and  gave  the  poor  fellow  a  hand,  and  gave  him  the 
first  chance  he's  had  in  years  to  believe  in  human 
nature  at  all.  And,  all  this  time,  everybody  else 
around  him  was  acting  in  the  way  that  this  same 
poor  fellow  would  have  acted  himself,  if  he  had 
wanted  to  play  devil.  The  same  couple  of  gentle- 


198  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

men  went  for  a  good  many  other  people,  and  acted 
in  a  way  that  you  read  about  in  novels  and  the 
Bible  (but  mighty  seldom  see  in  town)  ;  and  those 
fellows  believe  in  these  two  gentlemen,  now,  but 
they  hate  all  the  rest  of  you  like  poison.  I  don't 
suppose  you  like  it,  but  truth  is  truth  ;  you  might 
as  well  know  what  it  is." 

Several  people  got  up  and  went  out,  carrying 
very  red  faces  with  them  ;  but  Fred  Macdonald 
stood  up  and  clapped  his  hands,  and  the  Adams 
family  and  Wainright  helped  him,  while  the  broad 
boots  of  Father  Baguss  raided  a  cloud  of  dust, 
which  formed  quite  an  aureole  about  Baguss  him 
self  as  he  got  up  and  remarked  : 

"  Brethren  and  sisters  :  Squire  Tomple  hit  the 
nail  exactly  on  the  head  when  he  said  that  hollerin' 
an'  singin'  makes  a  hypocrite  of  a  man  if  he  don't 
open  his  pocket-book.  If  you  don't  believe  it,  re 
member  me.  If  anybody  ever  liked  his  own  more'n 
I  did,  he's  a  curiosity.  I  don't  hate  money  a  bit 
now,  an'  I'm  not  goin'  to  try  to;  but  the  hardest 
case  I  ever  got  acquainted  with  was  me,  Zedekiah 
Baguss,  when  I  couldn't  dodge  it  any  longer  that  I 
ought  to  spend  money  for  a  feller-critter.  I  won't 
name  no  names,  brethren  an'  sisters ;  but  if  you're 


CONCLUSION   OF  THE  WHOLE   MATTER.      199 

huntin'  for  any  such  game,  don't  go  to  lookin1 
up  drunkards  until  you  smell  around  near  home 
fust." 

"  Reputation  be  blowed  higher  than  a  kite !  " 
exclaimed  Captain  Crayme,  springing  to  his  feet ; 
"but  I've  got  to  say  just  a  word  here.  Gentlemen, 
I'm  off  my  whiskey,  and  I'm  going  to  stay  off;  but 
I  might  be  drinking  yet,  and  have  kept  on  forever, 
for  all  that  any  of  you  that's  so  pious  and  temperate 
ever  cared.  But  one  man  thought  enough  of  me 
to  come  and  talk  to  me — talk  like  a  man,  and  not 
preach  a  sermon  ;  more  than  that,  he  not  only  talked 
— which  the  biggest  idiot  here  might  have  done  just 
as  well — but  he  stuck  by  me,  and  he  brought  me 
through.  Any  of  you  might  have  done  it,  but 
none  of  you  cared  enough  for  me,  and  yet  I'm  a 
business  man,  and  I've  got  some  property.  How 
any  poor  fellow  down  in  the  mud  is  ever  to  get 
up  again,  in  such  a  place,  I  don't  see  ;  and  yet 
Barton's  as  good  a  town  as  I  ever  touch  at." 

The  interest  of  the  meeting  was  departing,  so 
were  the  attendants ;  but  the  Reverend  Timothcus 
Brown  limped  forward  and  exclaimed  : 

"  Hear,  then,  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  : 
1  Not  every  one  that  sayeth  Lord,  Lord,  shall  in- 


200  THE  BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

herit  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  him  that  doeth 
the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven.'  There 
has  been  a  blessed  change  wrought  in  this  town 
within  a  year,  and  work  has  done  it  all.  He  who 
taught  us  to  say  *  Our  Father,'  made  of  every  man 
his  brother's  keeper,  and  no  amount  of  talk  can 
undo  what  He  did.  A  few  men  in  our  midst  have 
recognized  their  duty  and  have  done  it,  or  are  doing 
it ;  most  of  them,  among  them  him  who  addresses 
you,  have  learned  that  the  beginning  is  the  hardest 
part  of  the  work,  and  that  the  laborer  receives  his 
hire,  though  never  in  the  way  in  which  he  expects 
it.  Much  remains  to  be  done,  not  only  in  raising 
the  fallen,  but  in  reforming  the  upright;  and,  to 
get  a  full  and  fair  view  of  the  latter,  there  is  no  way 
so  successful  as  to  go  to  work  for  others." 

Squire  Tomple  announced  that  the  meeting  was 
still  open  for  remarks ;  but,  no  one  else  availing 
themselves  of  the  privilege  offered,  the  evening 
closed  with  a  spirited  medley  from  the  brass  band. 
Not  every  one  was  silent  and  dismal,  however  ;  as 
the  church  emptied,  Tomple,  Bunley,  Crupp,  Wedge- 
well,  Brown,  and  the  other  pastors  came  down  from 
the  platform,  and  were  met  at  the  foot  of  the  steps 
by  Baguss  and  Deacon  Jones,  and  there  was  a  gen- 


CONCLUSION   OF  THE   WHOLE   MATTER.      2OI 

eral  hand-shaking.  Tom  Adams  stood  afar  off,  look 
ing  curiously  and  wistfully  at  the  party,  noticing 
which,  Parson  Wedgewell  danced  excitedly  up  to 
him,  and  dragged  him  into  the  circle  ;  there  Tom 
received  a  greeting  which  somehow  educated  him, 
in  two  or  three  minutes,  to  a  point  far  beyond  any 
that  his  head  or  heart  had  previously  reached. 
Then  Fred  Macdonald,  who  had  intended  to  avoid 
any  action  which  might  seem  to  make  him  one  of 
the  "  old  fellows  "  of  the  village,  suddenly  lost  his 
head  in  some  manner  which  he  could  not  explain, 
and  hurried  off,  caught  Sam  Crayme's  arm,  and  de 
stroyed  such  reputation  as  remained  to  the  captain 
along  the  river,  by  bringing  the  enterprising  naviga 
tor  into  such  a  circle  as  he  had  never  entered  before, 
but  in  which  he  soon  found  himself  as  much  at  home 
as  if  he  had  been  born  there.  Others,  too — not 
many  in  number,  to  be  sure — but  representing  most 
of  the  soul  of  the  village,  straggled  timidly  up  to 
the  group,  and  were  informally  admitted  to  what 
was  not  conventionally  a  love-feast,  but  approached 
nearer  to  one  than  any  formal  gathering  could  have 
done. 

Barton  has  never  since  known  a  monster  temper 
ance   meeting;    but    the    few    righteous   men   who 


202  THE   BARTON   EXPERIMENT. 

dwell  therein  have  proved  to  their  own  satisfaction, 
and  that  of  certain  one-time  wretches,  that,  in  a 
successful  temperance  movement,  the  reform  must 
begin  among  those  who  never  drink. 


YB  74050 


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